Fabrication of a High-Performance and Reusable Planar Face Mask in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused a surge in demand for face masks, with the massive consumption of masks leading to an increase in resource-related and environmental concerns. In this work, we fabricated meltblown polypropylene (mb-PP)-based high-performance planar face masks and investigated the effects of six commonly used disinfection methods and various mask-wearing periods on the reusability of these masks. The results show that, after three cycles of treatment using hot water at 70 °C for 30 min, which is one of the most scalable, user-friendly methods for viral disinfection, the particle filtration efficiency (PFE) of the mask remained almost unchanged. After mask wearing for 24 h and subsequent disinfection using the same treatment procedures, the PFE decreased to 91.3%; the average number of bacterial and fungal colonies was assessed to be 9.2 and 51.6 colony-forming units per gram (CFU∙g- 1), respectively; and coliform and pyogenic bacteria were not detected. Both the PFE and the microbial indicators are well above the standard for reusable masks after disinfection. Schlieren photography was then used to assess the capabilities of used and disinfected masks during use; it showed that the masks exhibit a high performance in suppressing the spread of breathed air.

Preparation of a new sorbent with hydrated lime and blast furnace slag for phosphorus removal from aqueous solution.

The removal of dissolvable inorganic phosphate (H(2)PO(4)(-)) by sorbents prepared from hydrated lime (HL) and blast furnace slag (BFS) was fundamentally studied by an orthogonal experiment design. Based on statistic analysis, it is revealed that the weight ratio of BFS/HL is the most significant variable, and an optimized preparation condition is figured out. With the increase of HL content, the adsorption capacity increases, suggesting that the HL plays the important role in the removal process in the gross. However, in the lower HL content, it is interesting that the adsorption capacity of as-prepared sorbents exceed the sum of the capacities of the same ratio of BFS and HL. The further analysis indicate the excess capacities linearly depend on the specific surface area of sorbents, suggesting that the removal of H(2)PO(4)(-) is closely related with the microstructure of sorbents in the lower HL content, according to the characterization with SEM, XRD and pore analysis. Additionally, an adsorption model and kinetic are discussed in this paper.