Design of a self-powered triboelectric face mask

Autor: Bipan Tudu, Barnali Ghatak, Nityananda Das, Dipankar Mandal, Sanjoy Banerjee, Rajib Bandyopadhyay, Sk Babar Ali
Rok vydání: 2020
Předmět:
Zdroj: Nano Energy
ISSN: 2211-2855
Popis: Usage of a face mask has become mandatory in many countries after the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2, and its usefulness in combating the pandemic is a proven fact. There have been many advancements in the design of a face mask and the present treatise describes a face mask in which a simple triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) with an electrocution layer may serve the purpose of filtration and deactivation of SARS-CoV-2. The proposed mask is designed with multilayer filters, in which the inner three layers act as a triboelectric (TE) filter and the outer one as an electrocution layer (EL). The viral particles experience a mildshock in EL due to the electric field produced between the electrocution layers by contact electrification. Four pairs of triboelectric series fabrics, i.e. polyvinylchloride (PVC)-nylon, polypropylene (PP)-polyurethane (PU), latex rubber-PU, polyimide (PI)-nylon are studied to establish the efficacy of the mask. The motional force exerted on triboelectric filter materials can produce sufficient electric power to activate EL. The proposed mask can be used by a wide range of people because of its triboelectric self-powering (harvesting mechanical energy from daily activities, e.g. breathing, talking or other facial movements) functionalities to ensure effective filtration efficiency. More importantly, it is expected to be potentially beneficial to slow down the devastating impact of COVID-19.
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Highlights • A self-powered mask has been proposed with multilayer filters. • Inner three layers are triboelectric filter and outer one electrocution layer. • Self-powered attained by motional forces (from breathing, talking, etc. physical motion) exerted on triboelectric materials. • Triboelectric field may restrict incoming and outgoing virus in the aerosols to the wearer. • Triboelectric built-in potential through conduction of electrical current in the electrocution mesh layer can deactivate the viruses in the aerosols.
Databáze: OpenAIRE