Investigating the effect of SiO2 nanoparticle addition and thickness of face-coverings on COVID-19 protection using molecular dynamics approach

Abstract

This study investigates the penetration of coronavirus (COVID-19) and oxygen (O2) in different commercial face coverings like surgical and N-95 masks using a molecular dynamics approach. For this purpose, the effects of the thickness of the masks and the addition of SiO2 nanoparticles are studied. We could demonstrate quantitatively the advantages of N-95 masks over surgical masks for coronavirus protection. The temperature (T) in all the simulated structures converges to 300 K after 20 ns. By increasing the thickness and decreasing the concentration of the coronavirus, the stability of the coronavirus was reduced. For the surgical mask, the atomic ratio of O2 molecules that penetrated was 73 %, and for the N-95 mask, it was 78 %. With the increase in mask thickness from 15 nm to 1000 nm, the atomic ratio of O2 molecules in surgical masks decreased from 73 % to 67 %. Furthermore, the atomic ratio of the coronavirus in this mask decreased from 11 % to 5 %. The atomic ratio of O2 molecules decreased from 78 % to 71 % as thickness increased. Also, the atomic ratio of coronavirus decreased from 6 % to 3 % in the N-95 mask. For the surgical mask, with the increase of SiO2 from 1 % to 10 %, the atomic ratio of O2 increased from 78 % to 80 %. Also, the atomic ratio of the coronavirus remained constant with the addition of carrier particles. For the N-95 mask, with the increase of SiO2 from 1 % to 10 %, the atomic ratio of O2 increased from 83% to 85%. Additionally, the atomic ratio of the coronavirus increased from 9 % to 8 % by adding nanoparticles.