Abstract
During the COVID-19 pandemic, personal protective equipment (PPE) has become crucial to protect humans from the transmission of the virus. The face shield is a simple and effective PPE to prevent the viral and bacterial contact. Since COVID-19 is known to be spread via respiratory droplets, the face shield has become increasingly important PPE. However, the common materials used in face shields are synthetic, environmentally unfriendly polymers, which cause an accumulation of plastic waste once disposed. Cellulose acetate (CA) can be used as an alternative for face shield films due to its ability to decompose safely in the environment; however, pristine CA cannot serve as an effective face shield due to its low hydrophobicity. In this research, the somewhat hydrophilic character of CA with a water contact angle of 55° is experimented on: hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) is utilized to improve the hydrophobicity of CA up to a water contact angle of 77°. After the oxidization of the surface of CA via oxygen plasma, implementing HMDS shows a significant increase in hydrophobicity of the film.
Highlights
The current COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted our daily lives
The common materials used in face shields are synthetic, environmentally unfriendly polymers, which cause an accumulation of plastic waste once disposed
Cellulose acetate (CA) can be used as an alternative for face shield films due to its ability to decompose safely in the environment; pristine CA cannot serve as an effective face shield due to its low hydrophobicity
Summary
The current COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted our daily lives. As of July 15, 2020 in the United States [1], the virus has infected more than 3.5 million people and caused nearly 140 thousand deaths. The main component (shield) is made of polymer films; polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polycarbonates (PC), and polyvinylchlorides (PVC) are widely used as face shields These polymers are major materials in the current market. These successfully protect saliva droplets from COVID-19 patients, these films do not last long from disinfection procedures. They become plastic waste in the end. CA waste can be buried in soil or water to safely decompose overtime [3] This is the major advantage of using CA as disposable face shield. The motivation of this research is how to improve the hydrophobicity of CA film while retaining the original optical transparency
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
