HOW SMART IS N95 MASK?

    Hey dude! Are you using a mask? ‘Am 100% sure that you are even reading this contagious blog with your masks on like diehard Tom Hardy fans. But wait a second, is your mask effective enough in this COVID19 pandemic situation? Many health organizations have suggested use of N95 mask. This mask provides a bunch of filtration mechanisms and here electrostatics comes in business. In fact these are mentioned below:

• INERTIAL IMPACTION
• DIFFUSION
• ELECTROSTATIC ATTRACTION/ REPULSION 

(N95 MASK CONSISTS OF ELECTRET FILTRETION TECHNIQUE)

• INERTIAL IMPACTION:

                                                     If an airborne stuff, ≥ 1micrometre, comes along the air  in front of an N95, it is going to hit some Fibres of the mask definitely due to the inertia the airborne stuff has. Actually, it does not even take more than one hit to get stuck with the mask fibre reason being a weak force, Van Der Waals force. Some may call it Casimir effect, but we are not here to analyse these unimportant details. So, for this size of stuff, Inertial Impaction works as a filtration mechanism.

• DIFFUSION:

                                 For those stuff which are ≤ 0.1micrometre are even light weighted, not subjected to inertial impaction they, themselves, travel through all the way bumping into and ricocheting off of those air molecules. Or you can say Brownian motion, they do. These airborne stuff are going to hit the mask fibres anytime soon going through the zigzag sieve like paths. This is called Diffusion

• ELECTROSTATIC ATTRACTION/ REPULSION :

                                   Last but not least, the Electrostatic method to add to the filtration because between 1micron and 0.1micron, approx. 0.3micron, there are many airborne pathogens within this range. They are neither undergone the inertial impaction nor diffusion because they are neither too big to get captured because of their inertia nor too small to get trapped through diffusion. Such stuff are filtered out with the use of electretized fabrics. Actually, when these small particles come near such fabrics, they get attracted to the opposites. Even if, those small airborne particles are neutral, but in electric field they get polarized and the opposite pole gets attracted to the fabric.  These fabrics are charged by putting in electric field the same way a magnetic material is permanently magnetized in a magnetic field. And the property persists for a long time likewise a permanent magnet does. It is called Electret. Actually this is the very instinct of an N95 mask and the number 95 tells us that at least 95% of the medium size airborne particles are successfully filtered out and the letter N stands for non-oil as this mask can’t resist oil.   

 There are two more rating letters R and P representing oil resistant for 8 hours and oil proof respectively. And the some other numerical values like 100, if a mask works 99.97% for those medium size stuff and a 99 value is used likewise. Other than that, there could be various ratings and hence the letters as well. 

WARNING: Don’t use any alcohol or bleach solution to disinfect an N95 mask as its electretised property   may vanish and would not remain different from those which already don’t have electrospun fabrics. 

 How are electrets made?

Electrets are made under a process called Electrospinning. In this, some certain molten material like polymer is ejected with high pressure from a nozzle called emitter to a  rolling cylinder called collector in an electric field, often created by a DC supply of order of 10kv.  

 

IF N95 CAN NOT BE STERILIZED, WHAT NOW? 

So the facts are really a matter of concern that the N95 mask is not provided at the price of a regular 2 layer mask, shortage of N95 masks due to the outbreak of COVID-19 disease and these masks are generally not disinfectable hence nonreusable . And these are the very reasons that compel many research organizations discover even better options. Guardian G-Volt is one of those. Yes, Leadership in Global Change LTD. (LIGC ltd.) has invented a kind of advanced generation mask that can be reused after its sterilization unlike N95 mask.  Guardian G-Volt is made of graphene. And guess what! Electrical charges are deployed once again as a knight in shining armour. The electrical charges will be provided by a portable battery via a usb port. The Guardian G-Volt works on a graphene filtration mechanism and is reusable after its sterilization in a docking system. The graphene which is used in the making of the mask is a laser induced graphene (such type of material is made by burning some foamy carbon polymer into microscopic patterns by using laser beam).

 One of The Methodologies of Making LIG(Laser Induced Graphene) 

 Actually graphene is an allotrope of carbon element which is known for its strong structural quality and it also has some antibacterial mechanism. This mask is an effective filtration device against the pathogens of the size appox. 0.3 micron.  The charge stored on the layer of microporous graphene foam repels those micro-particles. Guardian G-Volt can filter out at least 99% of those pathogens which are 95% effectively filtered  by an N95 mask. And the Guardian G-Volt can be effective of other smaller particles by at least 80%.

Leadership in Global Change ltd. says that they have been working on it for almost five years, but the recent corona virus diseases aligned the favour of people and the technical researches on masks.

CHINA IS ALSO LOOKING FOR A BETTER OPTION:

                 Apart from the American company, a Chinese architect Sun Dayong has an idea of developing a body cover named Be a Bat Man. This cover is said to have an UV light mechanism to disinfect itself. As the developer claims that the corona virus can not be alive at 329.15 kelvins, the cover will come with conductors stuck to it that will produce  sufficient heat just to kill pathogens trapped on it. The cover will have PVC film as shield and skeleton of carbon fibers (attention: graphene is a corbon fibre , there are many other carbon fibres except graphene).the cover can be taken off when not needed and can be worn like a backpack. And the name,Be a Bat Man also seems to to be somewhere related to bats which are known to have brought the corona virus among us. SO, let’s be the Bat Man who once was afraid of bats but later overcame the situation like a worrior. The work is still under progress and it looks like a lot is due to happen.

Bat like wings with PVC THERMOPLASTIC FILM

So, now we know that sterilization could be done effectively without depreciating the static charge property of an electret used in N95 masks, but this is still to be examined if UV light technique is depreciating static charge property  or not. That is all for the time, take care of yourself, Ciao!