The researchers of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi have developed an indigenous technology for manufacturing high-efficiency face masks from waste water bottles’.
Dr. Sumit Sinha Ray, Assistant Professor at School of Engineering along with research scholars Ashish Kakoria and Sheshang Singh Chandel, have used waste plastic bottles to develop a single thin layer of nano-nonwoven membrane that provides desirable particle filtration, at par with N95 respirator and a medical mask.
As per researchers, “Human hair is close to fifty micrometres thick but the nanofibre membrane developed at the IIT contain fibers 250 times thinner than a hair and even a single layer is capable of removing 0.3 micron particles from air with 98 percent efficiency .”
Telling about the findings Dr. Ray said, “Nanofibres can do wonders for facemasks as it can remove pollutants efficiently and comfortably improving quality of air inhaled by a user, besides being cheaper; in laboratory it was made at Rs 25 but it would be much cheaper during commercial production”.
He said, “Our team used Electro-spinning for shredding waste plastic bottles and used combination of solvents to dissolve it and extrude nanofibers and have also made is bacteria and infection free; have also filed provisional patent for the product.”
Telling about efficacy of the mask Ashish Kakoria associated with the project said “ The ultrafine fibers used in the mask allows less resistance in airflow due to a unique phenomenon called ‘slip flow’, which improves breathability; moreover use of waste empty bottles can check problem of their disposal also .”
“ Waste plastic pollution has already acquired an alarming pollution threat and environmentalist throughout the world are trying to find effective ways of their disposal and its use for making masks can help in checking this problem,” researchers add. n style=’mso-spacerun:yes’> “ The ultrafine fibers used in the mask allows less resistance in airflow due to a unique phenomenon called ‘slip flow’, which improves breathability; moreover use of waste empty bottles can check problem of their disposal also .”
“ Waste plastic pollution has already acquired an alarming pollution threat and environmentalist throughout the world are trying to find effective ways of their disposal and its use for making masks can help in checking this problem,” researchers add.