Facile development of graphene-based air filters mounted on a 3D printed mask for COVID-19

Abstract

COVID-19 belongs to a typical class of viruses that predominantly affects the human respiratory system, thereby proving to be fatal to many. The virus, along with other air pollutant particulates poses a severe threat to the human respiratory organs. Since the most common transmission mode is respiratory fomites and aerosol particulates, it is necessary to prevent their ingression through a mask. The primary use of masks is to prevent aerial particulates. This paper reveals the development of masks with air filters coated with functionalized graphene (fG) mounted on a 3D-printed facial mask replica. The fused deposition modeling (FDM) process is used for fabricating the facial mask replica. fG associated with nanosheets has an additional adsorbing capacity with a high surface area to volume ratio. fG coat is used over a polypropylene (PP) cloth through a dip coating method to enhance the antiviral and antimicrobial properties. The quality of fG was investigated through Raman spectroscopy and other characterization techniques such as SEM, XRD, and FTIR, which were used for visual interpretation of distributions of fG on a polypropylene (PP) fabric. Fabricated fG coated MB filters show 98.2% of bacterial filtration efficiency with 1.10 mbar of breathing resistance. The efficacy of the fG coated filter was tested against SARS-CoV-2 viral particles, which showed a complete arrest of viral transmission at the fG coated layer.