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Face Masks and Respirators in the Fight Against the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review of Current Materials, Advances and Future Perspectives

The outbreak of COVID-19 has spread rapidly across the globe, greatly affecting how humans as a whole interact, work and go about their daily life. One of the key pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE) that is being utilised to return to the norm is the face mask or respirator. In this review...

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Autores principales: O’Dowd, Kris, Nair, Keerthi M., Forouzandeh, Parnia, Mathew, Snehamol, Grant, Jamie, Moran, Ruth, Bartlett, John, Bird, Jerry, Pillai, Suresh C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7435473/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32751260
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ma13153363
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author O’Dowd, Kris
Nair, Keerthi M.
Forouzandeh, Parnia
Mathew, Snehamol
Grant, Jamie
Moran, Ruth
Bartlett, John
Bird, Jerry
Pillai, Suresh C.
author_facet O’Dowd, Kris
Nair, Keerthi M.
Forouzandeh, Parnia
Mathew, Snehamol
Grant, Jamie
Moran, Ruth
Bartlett, John
Bird, Jerry
Pillai, Suresh C.
author_sort O’Dowd, Kris
collection PubMed
description The outbreak of COVID-19 has spread rapidly across the globe, greatly affecting how humans as a whole interact, work and go about their daily life. One of the key pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE) that is being utilised to return to the norm is the face mask or respirator. In this review we aim to examine face masks and respirators, looking at the current materials in use and possible future innovations that will enhance their protection against SARS-CoV-2. Previous studies concluded that cotton, natural silk and chiffon could provide above 50% efficiency. In addition, it was found that cotton quilt with a highly tangled fibrous nature provides efficient filtration in the small particle size range. Novel designs by employing various filter materials such as nanofibres, silver nanoparticles, and nano-webs on the filter surfaces to induce antimicrobial properties are also discussed in detail. Modification of N95/N99 masks to provide additional filtration of air and to deactivate the pathogens using various technologies such as low- temperature plasma is reviewed. Legislative guidelines for selecting and wearing facial protection are also discussed. The feasibility of reusing these masks will be examined as well as a discussion on the modelling of mask use and the impact wearing them can have. The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) models and its applications to minimise or prevent the spread of the virus using face masks and respirators is also addressed. It is concluded that a significant amount of research is required for the development of highly efficient, reusable, anti-viral and thermally regulated face masks and respirators.
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spelling pubmed-74354732020-08-28 Face Masks and Respirators in the Fight Against the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review of Current Materials, Advances and Future Perspectives O’Dowd, Kris Nair, Keerthi M. Forouzandeh, Parnia Mathew, Snehamol Grant, Jamie Moran, Ruth Bartlett, John Bird, Jerry Pillai, Suresh C. Materials (Basel) Review The outbreak of COVID-19 has spread rapidly across the globe, greatly affecting how humans as a whole interact, work and go about their daily life. One of the key pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE) that is being utilised to return to the norm is the face mask or respirator. In this review we aim to examine face masks and respirators, looking at the current materials in use and possible future innovations that will enhance their protection against SARS-CoV-2. Previous studies concluded that cotton, natural silk and chiffon could provide above 50% efficiency. In addition, it was found that cotton quilt with a highly tangled fibrous nature provides efficient filtration in the small particle size range. Novel designs by employing various filter materials such as nanofibres, silver nanoparticles, and nano-webs on the filter surfaces to induce antimicrobial properties are also discussed in detail. Modification of N95/N99 masks to provide additional filtration of air and to deactivate the pathogens using various technologies such as low- temperature plasma is reviewed. Legislative guidelines for selecting and wearing facial protection are also discussed. The feasibility of reusing these masks will be examined as well as a discussion on the modelling of mask use and the impact wearing them can have. The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) models and its applications to minimise or prevent the spread of the virus using face masks and respirators is also addressed. It is concluded that a significant amount of research is required for the development of highly efficient, reusable, anti-viral and thermally regulated face masks and respirators. MDPI 2020-07-29 /pmc/articles/PMC7435473/ /pubmed/32751260 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ma13153363 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
O’Dowd, Kris
Nair, Keerthi M.
Forouzandeh, Parnia
Mathew, Snehamol
Grant, Jamie
Moran, Ruth
Bartlett, John
Bird, Jerry
Pillai, Suresh C.
Face Masks and Respirators in the Fight Against the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review of Current Materials, Advances and Future Perspectives
title Face Masks and Respirators in the Fight Against the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review of Current Materials, Advances and Future Perspectives
title_full Face Masks and Respirators in the Fight Against the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review of Current Materials, Advances and Future Perspectives
title_fullStr Face Masks and Respirators in the Fight Against the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review of Current Materials, Advances and Future Perspectives
title_full_unstemmed Face Masks and Respirators in the Fight Against the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review of Current Materials, Advances and Future Perspectives
title_short Face Masks and Respirators in the Fight Against the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review of Current Materials, Advances and Future Perspectives
title_sort face masks and respirators in the fight against the covid-19 pandemic: a review of current materials, advances and future perspectives
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7435473/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32751260
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ma13153363
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