Personalized reusable face masks with smart nano-assisted destruction of pathogens for COVID-19: A visionary road

The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) emergency has demonstrated that the utilization of face masks plays a critical role in limiting the outbreak. Healthcare professionals utilize masks all day long without replacing them very frequently, thus representing a source of crossinfection for patients and themselves. Nanotechnology is a powerful tool with the capability to produce nanomaterials with unique physicochemical and antipathogen properties. Here, how to realize non-disposable and highly comfortable respirators with light-triggered self-disinfection ability by bridging bioactive nanofiber properties and stimuli-responsive nanomaterials is outlined. The visionary road highlighted in this Concept is based on the possibility of developing a new generation of masks based on multifunctional membranes where the presence of nanoclusters and plasmonic nanoparticles arranged in a hierarchical structure enables the realization of a chemically driven and on-demand antipathogen activities. Multilayer electrospun membranes have the ability to dissipate humidity present within the mask, enhancing the wearability and usability. The photothermal disinfected membrane is the core of these 3D printed and reusable masks with moisture pump capability. Personalized face masks with smart nano-assisted destruction of pathogens will bring enormous advantages to the entire global community, especially for front-line personnel, and will open up great opportunities for innovative medical applications.

Description

This work was supported by the First TEAM grant number POIR.04.04.00-00-5ED7/18-00, which is carried out within the framework of the First TEAM programme of the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP), co-financed by the European Union under the European Regional Development Fund. The authors are also grateful for the support of this work by the National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA) grant no. PPI/APM/2018/1/00045/U/001. Filippo Pierini and Bin Ding acknowledge the financial support from the National Centre for Research and Development (NCBiR) and the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China (MoST) through the Polish–Chinese/Chinese–Polish Joint Research Project. Filippo Pierini acknowledges the financial support from the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education through scholarships for outstanding young scientists. The research leading to the reported results has received funding from: Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), and the U.S. Air Force grant no. FA9550-18-1-0038 (P. I. L. De Sio, EOARD 2017–2020), and the Materials and Manufacturing. Karin Kogermann acknowledges the financial support from the Estonian Research Council (grant no. PRG726). Geoffrey Mitchell and Pascoal-Faria acknowledge the financial support of the Portuguese FundaÅ¼o para a CiÞncia e a Tecnologia (FCT) and Centro2020 through the Project Reference UID/Multi/04044/2019, MATIS: CENTRO-01-0145-FEDER-000014-3362 and PAMI-ROTEIRO/0328/2013; N8 022158. The synchrotron-based experiments were performed at the ALBA Synchrotron Light Source in Barcelona in collaboration with ALBA staff and CALIPSOplus (Grant 730872) funding. The authors would also like to acknowledge Tommaso Rondina, Mariliis Hinnu and WASP-CSP s.r.l for lending us the rights to their photos, Renato Batista for his help with the artwork, and Prof. T. A. Kowalewski for his valuable and constructive suggestions.

Keywords

Antipathogen Digitally personalized Electrospinning Face masks Light-responsive nanomaterials

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.8/8402

Citation

De Sio, L., Ding, B., Focsan, M., Kogermann, K., Pascoal-Faria, P., Petronela, F., Mitchell, G., Zussman, E., & Pierini, F. (2021). Personalized reusable face masks with smart nano-assisted destruction of pathogens for COVID-19: A visionary road. Chemistry European Journal, 27, 6112 – 6130. DOI: 10.1002/chem.202004875