Commercial Janus Fabrics as Reusable Facemask Materials: A Balance of Water Repellency, Filtration Efficiency, Breathability, and Reusability
Abstract
Facemasks as personal protective equipment play a significant role in helping prevent the spread of viruses during the COVID-19 pandemic. A desired reusable fabric facemask should strike a balance of water repellency, good filtration efficiency (FE), breathability, and mechanical robustness against washing cycles. Despite significant efforts in testing various commercial fabric materials for filtration efficiency, few have investigated fabric performance as a function of the fiber/yarn morphology and wettability of the fabric itself. In this study, we examine commercial fabrics with Janus-like behaviors to determine the best reusable fabric facemask materials by understanding the roles of morphology, porosity, and wettability of the fabric on its overall performance. We find that the outer layer of the diaper fabric consisted of laminated polyurethane, which is hydrophobic, has low porosity (∼5%) and tightly woven yarn structures, and shows the highest overall FE (up to 54%) in the submicron particle size range (0.03-0.6 μm) among the fabrics tested. Fabric layers with higher porosity lead to lower-pressure drops, indicating higher breathability but lower FE. Tightly woven waterproof rainwear fabrics perform the best after 10 washing cycles, remaining intact morphologically with only a 2-5% drop in the overall FE in the submicron particle size range, whereas other knitted fabric layers become loosened and the laminated polyurethane thin film on the diaper fabric is wrinkled. In comparison, the surgical masks and N95 respirators made from nonwoven polypropylene (PP) fibers see over a 30% decline in the overall FE after 10 washing cycles. Overall, we find that tightly woven Janus fabrics consisting of a low porosity, a hydrophobic outer layer, and a high porosity and hydrophilic inner layer offer the best performance among the fabrics tested as they can generate a high overall FE, achieve good breathability, and maintain fabric morphology and performance over multiple washing cycles.
Recommended Citation
S. Cheng et al., "Commercial Janus Fabrics as Reusable Facemask Materials: A Balance of Water Repellency, Filtration Efficiency, Breathability, and Reusability," ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, vol. 14, no. 28, pp. 32579 - 32589, American Chemical Society, Jul 2022.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.2c09544
Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Keywords and Phrases
Facemask; Filtration Efficiency; Janus Fabrics; Reusability; Surface Interactions
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
1944-8252; 1944-8244
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2022 American Chemical Society, All rights reserved.
Publication Date
20 Jul 2022
PubMed ID
35794731
Comments
The authors acknowledge support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the PIRE program #OISE-1545884 and, in part, by Future Manufacturing Research Grant (FMRG), # CMMI-2037097. The authors also acknowledge the use of SEM supported by the NSF/Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) at the University of Pennsylvania, #DMR-1720530. Y.W. and W.H. are also partly supported by the NSF CBET grant, #CBET-2034198.