Bactericidal masks

NUST MISIS has developed a technology for creating "antibacterial" masks

Anastasia Ibragimova, "Scientific Russia"

Fabric medical masks are used not only as part of the equipment of doctors in case of surgery, but also for additional protection during medical examinations, as well as in hospital conditions. The difficult epidemiological situation forced people to use masks in everyday conditions – while traveling on public transport, going to the store, on walks.

Despite the fact that fabric masks retain a certain part of the contamination, they weakly prevent the penetration of pathogens into the body. This problem can be solved with the help of additional processing of masks, which will allow them to be "endowed" with bactericidal properties.

NUST MISIS scientists have developed and patented (No. RU 2426484C1, 08/20/2011) a technology for creating a protective antibacterial membrane made of silver nanoparticles in fabric masks, since it has bactericidal properties, and when interacting with pathogen cells destroys their shell.

Technologically, the process looks like this: a thin plate of pure silver is immersed in a glass chamber with a transparent liquid, a mesh container with masks is fixed above it, a copper vapor laser radiation installation is located under the chamber. Then the laser turns on, and there is an intense pulsed effect (frequency 15 kHz, duration of one pulse – 20 ns) on the silver plate. Nanoparticles begin to separate from the plate; under the influence of a pressure wave, they rise up and settle in the villi of the masks. Then the masks are dried, and the final product is obtained – products with a protective antibacterial barrier.

"Previously, researchers from Switzerland and Israel also worked on obtaining medical masks coated with silver nanoparticles. However, in their case, ultrasonic exposure was used, and eventually the nanoparticles gathered in rather large clusters, which is less effective from the point of view of antibacterial action. Our method allows us to distribute nanoparticles evenly over a shorter period of time, plus it is technologically less expensive. The cost of such a mask will be only a few kopecks higher than the usual fabric mask," comments the head of the study, Ph.D., associate professor of the Department of Engineering of Technological Equipment Valery Zharikov.

In general, the development of "antibacterial" masks is not the primary goal of the team, and the main task is to study the behavior of metals under nanosecond laser exposure. Nevertheless, according to scientists, there is a lot to move on: for example, you can try to deposit nanoparticles of gold, palladium and platinum on the fabric – materials that also have bactericidal properties.

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