Medical Protective Clothing Research Articles

Multi-inspired bump-liked medical protective clothing for effectively profuse perspiration management

Janus medical protective clothing (MPC) with asymmetric wetting properties can enhance the comfort of healthcare workers by transporting sweat from the skin to exterior surfaces. However, these textiles fail to promptly remove heavy sweat (e.g., several liters), resulting in soaked fabrics and reduced comfort. Herein, inspired by superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) and lotus leaves, we propose a bump-liked MPC (BPC) for profuse perspiration management. The fabrics can enable unidirectional sweat transport through the inner Janus fabric layer and sustained absorption of large amounts of sweat by the median layer of SAPs. The bump-liked structure can store SAPs and adapt them to swelling. An external polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-coated layer can effectively block water, blood, and ethanol from penetrating the skin (synthetic blood contact angle, 118°; anti-blood penetration resistance, 4.8 kPa), thereby ensuring excellent protective properties. More importantly, BPC possesses an unrivalled sweat removal rate of 5.9 ml cm−2 min−1, which is three orders of magnitude higher than the human sweat rate during high-intensity exercise. This work addresses the dual challenge of profuse perspiration management and resistance to liquid penetration, which represents a promising direction for improving the thermal-moisture comfort of medical protective clothing.

Upcycling of medical protective clothing for H2 production through catalytic steam reforming over Ni-impregnated catalysts

Disposing medical protective clothing (MPC) presents a significant challenge due to the potential risk of virus contamination. Catalytic steam reforming using Ni-impregnated catalysts was proposed to upcycle MPC for H2-rich gas production. Parametric studies validated that an optimal steam rate of 42 mL/h and a catalytic reforming temperature of 800 ℃ were ideal for H2-rich gas production. 10 wt% Ni impregnated on diverse supports (HY, ZSM-5, MCM-41, γ-Al2O3, MgO, CaO, and activated carbon) were prepared for steam reforming of MPC to assess the impact of support type on H2 production. Of these Ni-impregnated catalysts, Ni/CaO was found to present the highest gas yield (141.4 mmol/g) with a high H2 proportion of 65.2 vol%, due to its superior catalytic cracking and reforming ability of Ni/CaO, favoring the conversion of MPC intermediates into H2-rich gas. To evaluate the recyclability and reforming activity, the optimized Ni/CaO with and without catalyst regeneration was evaluated throughout the successive tests. It was found that Ni/CaO regenerated throughout the successive tests could more effectively mitigate the decreasing tendency of gas yields, favor H2 production, and reduce tar formation than the catalyst without regeneration. That was due to the removal of carbon deposition by catalyst regeneration, thereby mitigating the catalyst deactivation. In contrast, Ni/CaO without the catalyst regeneration was more responsible for the CO2 reduction, accompanying with a more significant decrease of ƞ (4.8 – 3.5 g CO2 /g H2). Overall, this study demonstrated the feasibility of valorizing medical plastic waste into H2-rich gas using effective Ni-based catalysts.

Micro-environment inside disposable medical protective clothing and its improvement

Disposable medical protective clothing (DMPC) can cause severe discomfort and even safety problems to wearers, especially during summertime in warm climates. This study investigated the micro-environment (air temperature (TDMPC) and relative humidity (RHDMPC)) in the space between the DMPC and the body, as well as the physiological and subjective sensations of wearers under typical conditions in a controlled climate chamber. Three types of clothes drying and cooling (CDC) techniques, including desiccant (CDC1), phase change material (CDC2), and the combination of both (CDC3), were then evaluated. Under typical conditions in hot and humid regions (30 °C, 70 %), TDMPC stabilized at about 33.5 °C in 40 min and RHDMPC stabilized in the range of 85–100 % after 80 min. When the ambient air temperature increased to 36 °C, the TDMPC increased to about 36.5 °C during activities such as sitting and standing-talking, while the forehead temperature of DMPC wearers reached 38.0 °C in 40–60 min and continued to rise. It implies that 40 min should be the maximum recommended working period for DMPC wearers at such ambient temperature and activity level. The proposed CDC3 reduced TDMPC by 1.2–1.8 °C during the experiment. The use of CDC3 effectively reduced the participants' thermal sensation vote from “2” or “3” (“hot” or “very hot”) to below “1” (warm) and the sweating sensation vote from “3” or “4” (“slight sweat” to “skin became clammy”) to below “2” (“no sweat but sticky skin”) under low and moderate activity levels.

Guarding Our Guardians: Navigating Adverse Reactions in Healthcare Workers Amid Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Usage During COVID-19.

The widespread utilization of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the COVID-19 pandemic has been crucial for reducing transmission risk among healthcare workers (HCWs) and the public. However, the extensive use of PPEhas brought about potential adverse reactions, particularly among HCWs. This study aims to investigate the prevalence and characteristics of adverse skin reactions associated with PPE use among different categories of HCWs, including faculty, residents, and nursing officers (NOs), in a dedicated tertiary care COVID-19 hospital. The study design was a hospital-based cross-sectional analytical study conducted over one month, involving a total of 240 participants. The participants were required to complete a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire that covered demographic information, PPE-related data, preventive measures, observed reactions, and self-management strategies. Results indicated that adverse skin reactions were common among HCWs, with reactions reported by all participants. The most commonly used PPE included N95 masks, goggles, gloves, face shields, isolation gowns, and medical protective clothing. Excessive sweating (60% residents, 21.1% NOs, and 16.25% faculties), facial rash, dry palms (>70% of HCWs), and itching were among the most prevalent adverse reactions. Urticarial lesions (28.5% among NOs), pressure marks and pain (100% on the cheek among all HCWs), fungal infections (18.5% among residents at the web space of fingers), and skin breakdown were also reported. Factors such as age, gender, pre-existing skin problems, and oily/acne-prone skin history were found to be significantly associated with adverse skin reactions. In conclusion, the findings highlight the common adverse reactions reported by HCWs during the use of different PPEs. Certain steps taken by HCWs for the prevention of adverse reactions due to PPE emphasize the importance of tailored preventive measures and strategies to mitigate these adverse reactions, such as proper PPE selection, well-fitting equipment, regular breaks, and appropriate skincare practices. These insights contribute to the development of guidelines for optimal PPE usage and support the well-being of HCWs in their essential roles.

Experimental study on the cooling performance of medical protective clothing coupled with phase-change cold storage materials

To solve the problems of poor cooling and moisture permeability of the normal medical protective clothing. A scheme of coupling the phase change cold storage material 1-dodecanol to normal medical protective clothing was proposed. Then the effect of phase change cold storage material on the cooling performance of the normal medical protective clothing internal microenvironment was studied under different conditions. The results showed that compared with normal medical protective clothing, when frontline medical workers wore the phase change medical protective clothing for light labor at 24℃ of the chamber temperature within 1 h, the temperature fluctuation can be effectively reduced by 30 %. One piece of phase change materials package was set up in the head, arm and leg, respectively. And four Phase change materials packages were set up in the chest and back, respectively. The test results showed that the internal temperature of the Phase change medical protective clothing could be sustained reduction of 8 %. The internal relative humidity increased by about 21 % compared with the normal medical protective clothing. The thermal comfort of the MPC was improved by 62.55 %, 26.43 % and 6.37 % for the head, back and chest, respectively. The remaining parts should be considered for future work.

Applied research on the design of protective clothing based on the Kano-QFD-PUGH method.

In order to improve the user experience of protective clothing for healthcare workers and reduce the design blindness and subjectivity of developers, we propose a research methodology that combines the Kano model, QFD quality function deployment, and PUGH decision-making scheme to develop conceptual solutions for medical protective clothing design. Firstly, we use the Kano model to identify the user requirements of healthcare workers and construct a hierarchy of functional requirements for protective clothing. Secondly, we use the QFD method to weigh the protective clothing design elements, convert user requirements into design elements, establish a relationship matrix between user requirements and design elements, and generate four conceptual design solutions based on the results. Finally, we use the PUGH decision-making method to filter and select the best concept solution for protective clothing design, and validate the design evaluation. Our results show that the protective clothing solutions designed using the combined Kano-QFD-PUGH system approach have a higher level of satisfaction compared to traditional protective clothing design. This method accurately explores the mapping relationship between user requirements and design functional elements and can be used as a general reliability design method. It helps to improve the development efficiency of designers and the decision-making role for design concept solution preference. Overall, our research methodology provides a comprehensive approach to developing medical protective clothing, which can be useful for designers and decision-makers in the healthcare industry.

Heat stress mitigation with ice cooling vests in PPE-clad medical workers: Effects of cooling area and gender differences

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many health care workers (HCWs) were required to perform medical tasks in outdoor settings while wearing medical protective clothing. Although personal protective equipment (PPE) is virus-resistant, it can impair the heat dissipation of HCWs. Hence, HCWs face significant heat stress risks while working outdoors. There is an urgent need to find effective ways to reduce heat stress in order to protect the health and safety of HCWs who wear personal protective equipment. In this study, the applicability of two ice-bag cooling vests (ICVs) with varying cooling areas for HCWs wearing PPE was evaluated. Based on the effects of the two ICVs on the thermal comfort of HCWs working outdoors, a cooling strategy for HCWs wearing PPE in outdoor environments was demonstrated. In addition, the gender difference in cooling demand was examined. Eighteen participants took part in the outdoor field study. The results indicated that using ice-bag cooling vests could reduce sweat loss by 27.3–39.4 % (0.09–0.13 kg) and the mean skin temperature by 0.25–0.95 °C. Cooling the back is more effective than cooling the abdomen in reducing overall thermal sensation. The area of discomfort corresponds to the area of sweating. Sweating is an important factor influencing the comfort of HCWs. ICVs could provide some comfort relief for 15–30 min. Gender differences in thermal sensation disappear after 30 min of exposure. The ICVs are recommended for use in future emergency situations. The findings of this study are beneficial to the health and safety of outdoor-working HCWs wearing personal protective equipment.

Improving thermal comfort of individual wearing medical protective clothing: Two personal cooling strategies integrated with the polymer water-absorbing resin material

To limit the spread of the epidemic, healthcare workers wore tightly closed protective suits. The microenvironment with high temperature and humidity inside medical protective clothing (MPC) may result in health risks to healthcare workers associated with heat stress, particularly when exposed to high-temperature environments over extended periods. To solve the problem of poor thermal and humidity comfort in MPC, two cooling strategies were designed by selecting a polymer water-absorbent resin: hygroscopic material clothing (HMC) and condensation dehumidification package (CDP). In this regard, we conducted experiments with ten participants to explore the effects of two strategies. Two ambient conditions (Neutral–warm condition, at about 27 °C; Hot condition, at about 31 °C) and four different wearing-mode conditions were chosen for this study. The results show that both strategies can improve the microenvironment in the MPC, significantly reduce the average skin temperature of the participants, improve the thermal sensation and comfort, and reduce the discomfort caused by hot and humid environments. Under hot conditions, the two cooling strategies can reduce the average skin temperature by more than 0.2 °C. Compared with the results of the control conditions, the average TSV was reduced by 0.47 and the average TCV was increased by 0.23 at most when using HMC; The average TSV was reduced by 1.00 and the average TCV was increased by 0.38 at most when using CDP. Moreover, the effects of the two strategies on improving thermal comfort were recognized by participants.

A Bioinspired Atomically Thin Nanodot Supported Single-Atom Nanozyme for Antibacterial Textile Coating.

Surface antibacterial coatings with outstanding antibacterial efficiency have attracted increasing attention in medical protective clothing and cotton surgical clothing. Although nanozymes, as a new generation of antibiotics, are used to combat bacteria, their catalytic performance remains far from satisfactory as alternatives to natural enzymes. Single-atom nanodots provide a solution to the low catalytic activity bottleneck of nanozymes. Here, atomically thin C3 N4 nanodots supported single Cu atom nanozymes (Cu-CNNDs) are developed by a self-tailoring approach, which exhibits catalytic efficiency of 8.09 × 105 M-1 s-1 , similar to that of natural enzyme. Experimental and theoretical calculations show that excellent peroxidase-like activity stems from the size effect of carrier optimizing the coordination structure, leading to full exposure of Cu-N3 active site, which improves the ability of H2 O2 to generate hydroxyl radicals (•OH). Notably, Cu-CNNDs exhibit over 99% superior antibacterial efficacy and are successfully grafted onto cotton fabrics. Thus, Cu-CNNDs blaze an avenue for exquisite biomimetic nanozyme design and have great potential applications in antibacterial textiles.

Co-pyrolysis of medical protective clothing and oil palm wastes for biofuel: Experimental, techno-economic, and environmental analyses.

The ongoing global pandemic of COVID-19 has devastatingly influenced the environment, society, and economy around the world. Numerous medical resources are used to inhibit the infectious transmission of the virus, resulting in massive medical waste. This study proposes a sustainable and environment-friendly method to convert hazardous medical waste into valuable fuel products through pyrolysis. Medical protective clothing (MPC), a typical medical waste from COVID-19, was utilized for co-pyrolysis with oil palm wastes (OPWs). The utilization of MPC improved the bio-oil properties in OPWs pyrolysis. The addition of catalysts further ameliorated the bio-oil quality. HZSM-5 was more effective in producing hydrocarbons in bio-oil, and the relevant reaction pathway was proposed. Meanwhile, a project was simulated to co-produce bio-oil and electricity from the co-pyrolysis of OPWs and MPC from application perspectives. The techno-economic analysis indicated that the project was economically feasible, and the payback period was 6.30-8.75 years. Moreover, it was also environmentally benign as its global warming potential varied from -211.13 to -90.76kg CO2-eq/t. Therefore, converting MPC and OPWs into biofuel and electricity through co-pyrolysis is a green, economic, and sustainable method that can decrease waste, produce valuable fuel products, and achieve remarkable economic and environmental benefits.

Totally-green cellulosic fiber with prominent sustained antibacterial and antiviral properties for potential use in spunlaced non-woven fabric production

The worldwide spread of COVID-19 has put a higher requirement for personal medical protective clothing, developing protective clothing with sustained antibacterial and antiviral performance is the priority for safe and sustaining application. For this purpose, we develop a novel cellulose based material with sustained antibacterial and antiviral properties. In the proposed method, the chitosan oligosaccharide (COS) was subjected to a guanylation reaction with dicyandiamide in the presence of Scandium (III) triflate; because of the relatively lower molecular weight and water solubility of the COS, GCOS (guanylated chitosan oligosaccharide) with high substitution degree (DS) could be successfully synthetized without acid application. In this instance, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of the GCOS were only 1/8 and 1/4 of that of COS. The introduction of GCOS onto the fiber endowed the fiber with extremely high antibacterial and antiviral performance, showing 100% bacteriostatic rate against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli and 99.48% virus load reduction of bacteriophage MS2. More importantly, the GCOS modified cellulosic fibers (GCOS-CFs) exhibit excellent sustained antibacterial and antiviral properties; namely, 30 washing cycles had negligible effect on the bacteriostatic rate (100%) and inhibition rate of bacteriophage MS2 (99.0%). Moreover, the paper prepared from the GCOS-CFs still exhibited prominent antibacterial and antiviral activity; inferring that the sheeting forming, press, and drying process have almost no effect on the antibacterial and antiviral performances. The insensitive of antibacterial and antiviral activity to water washing (spunlace) and heat (drying) make the GCOS-CFs a potential material applicable in the spunlaced non-woven fabric production.

Research on the novel medical protective clothing for COVID-19

With the outbreak of COVID-19, a large number of medical staffs have invested in the front line of anti-epidemic. Medical protective clothing (MPC) can provide a safe environment for the wearers to block bacteria and viruses. However, nowadays, the thermal performance of MPC on the market is very poor, resulting in the extremely low comfort of the wearer. Some improved MPCs were made of materials, which were not easy to obtain with high cost. Some improved MPCs were lack of thermal comfort experimental data based on real human body. Therefore, this paper proposed a novel MPC with reusable PCM and ventilation. Through simulation and experiment, human comfort of the novel MPC was compared with the other two kinds of MPCs. Five subjects were invited to carried out the comfort tests under three states of motion with three types of MPCs. The results showed the novel MPC with higher cost performance in the effective period had been proved that PPD decreased by 39.5% than the traditional MPC. Besides, the novel MPC could meet the comfort requirements of medical staffs for one shift. Furthermore, the work can provide theoretical methods and basic experimental data for the continuous improvement of the comfort and safety of MPC.

Foreign Bodies Detector Based on DETR for High-Resolution X-Ray Images of Textiles

Foreign bodies (FBs) detection for X-ray images of textiles is a novel and challenging task. To solve the problem of poor performance of anchor-based detectors for FBs detection, we propose a feature-enhanced object detection framework with transformer (FE-DETR). Based on the split-attention of residual split-attention network (ResNeSt), we add convolutional block attention module (CBAM) between residual blocks and replace the <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$3\times $ </tex-math></inline-formula> 3 convolutional layer of the last residual block with deformable convolution network (DCN) to adapt FBs with different scales. Then, we propose a multiscale feature encoding (MSFE) module to solve the feature dispersion caused by deep convolution. Meanwhile, the transformer module is selected as the prediction head of the detector. During training, several heuristic strategies are used to further optimize the performance of FE-DETR. In addition, we construct a benchmark dataset for the textile FBs detection task. With end-to-end training, FE-DETR achieves higher performance than the baseline and mainstream state-of-the-art methods, with mean average precision (mAP) = 0.74, average precision (AP) = 0.992, average recall (AR) = 0.971, and <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$F1$ </tex-math></inline-formula> -score = 0.987. This article has been applied to the production line of medical protective clothing during the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) period and has yielded impressive results in actual production.

Effect of Polymer Shell Structure of a Gamma-ray Shielding Film Prepared Using Composite Material on Shielding Performance

Medical protective clothing should be flexible to ensure free movement of healthcare personnel. This study aimed to investigate the effects of a polymer’s physical properties on the particle composition of a shielding material, constituent component miscibility, and shielding performance. To ensure flexibility by reducing the thickness of the shielding garment, polymer-based composite materials are mainly used as shielding materials. The shielding performance varies depending on whether the polymer used is in an emulsion or powder state. In this study, we found that a shielding film manufactured through an injection process after mixing a polymer in a powder form with tungsten powder exhibited 0.95%–2.5% higher shielding performance than that manufactured using the calendering process with an emulsion polymer. The shell structure formed when using the powder polymer maintains the spacing between the particles owing to the double coating of the tungsten particles and improves their dispersion. Additionally, the primary issue when combining an emulsion polymer and shielding material, that is the aggregation between the shielding material particles and between the polymer particles, could be alleviated, resulting in improved shielding performance. We concluded that the polymer-powder mixing method contributes to the reproducibility of the process technology when manufacturing shielding films.

Facile Preparation of PET/PA6 Bicomponent Microfilament Fabrics with Tunable Porosity for Comfortable Medical Protective Clothing

Medical protective materials have broadly drawn attention due to their ability to stop the spread of infectious diseases and protect the safety of medical staff. However, creating medical protective materials that combine excellent liquid shielding performance and outstanding mechanical properties with high breathability is still a challenging task. Herein, a polyester/polyamide 6 (PET/PA6) bicomponent microfilament fabric with tunable porosity for comfortable medical protective clothing was prepared via dip-coating technology and an easy and effective thermal-belt bonding process. The dip coating of the C6-based fluorocarbon polymer endowed the samples with excellent hydrophobicity (alcohol contact angles, 130-128°); meanwhile, by adjusting the temperature and pressure of the thermal-belt bonding process, the porosity of the samples was adapted in the range of 64.19-88.64%. Furthermore, benefitting tunable porosity and surface hydrophobicity, the samples also demonstrated an excellent softness score (24.3-34.5), agreeable air permeability (46.3-27.8 mm/s), and high hydrostatic pressure (1176-4130 Pa). Significantly, the created textiles successfully filter aerosol from the air and display highly tensile strength. These excellent comprehensive performances indicate that the prepared PET/PA6 bicomponent microfilament fabrics would be an attractive choice for medical protective apparel.

A Study on Preparation and Property Evaluations of Composites Consisting of TPU/Triclosan Membranes and Tencel®/LMPET Nonwoven Fabrics.

This study investigated eco-friendly antibacterial medical protective clothing via the nonwoven process and characteristic evaluations. Firstly, Tencel® fibers and low melting point polyester (LMPET) fibers (re-sliced and granulated from recycled PET bottles) were mixed at different ratios and then needle punched at diverse needle rolling depths. The influences of manufacturing parameters on the Tencel®/LMPET nonwoven fabrics were examined in terms of mechanical properties, water vapor transmission rate, and stiffness. Next, Tencel®/LMPET nonwoven fabrics were combined with thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU)/Triclosan antibacterial membranes that contained different contents of triclosan using melt processing technology. The resulting Tencel®/LMPET/TPU/Triclosan composites were characterized via different measurements; an optimal bursting strength of 86.86 N, an optimal horizontal tensile strength of 41.90 N, and an optimal stiffness along the MD and CD of 8.60 cm were recorded. Furthermore, the Tencel®/LMPET/TPU/Triclosan composites exhibited a distinct inhibition zone in the antibacterial measurement, and the hydrostatic pressure met the requirements of the EN 14126:2003 and GB 19082-200 disposable medical protective gear test standards.

Design of the "Hygroscopic Clothing" in Medical Protective Clothing

Design of the "Hygroscopic Clothing" in Medical Protective Clothing

Influence of Fabric Structure and Properties on Thermal Comfort of Medical Protective Clothing

Influence of Fabric Structure and Properties on Thermal Comfort of Medical Protective Clothing

Thermal Perception and Physiological Responses under Different Protection States in Indoor Crowded Spaces during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Summer

Currently, people in crowded indoor spaces are required to wear a variety of personal protective equipment to curb the spread of COVID-19. This study aimed to investigate the effects of wearing four types of personal protective equipment (unprotected, wearing masks, wearing face shield and wearing medical protective clothing) on human thermal perception and physiological responses in indoor crowded spaces in summer. The experiment was conducted in a climate chamber designed to simulate the indoor crowded spaces. Environmental parameters of climate chamber (air temperature, relative humidity and wind speed), physiological parameters of subjects (wrist skin temperature and pulse rate), and subjective perceptions (thermal sensation and thermal comfort) were collected during the experiment. The experimental results showed that medical protective clothing has the most obvious blocking effect on heat exchange between human and environment. Thermal sensation in state 4 (wearing medical protective clothing) was significantly (p &lt; 0.05) higher than that in other states. The study of physiological parameters showed that the wrist skin temperature and pulse rate under different protection states increased with the increase of room temperature. Through regression analysis, the thermal sensation estimation model of protective personnel in indoor crowded spaces based on wrist skin temperature and pulse rate was established. The adjusted R2 and RMSE of all models were above 82% and less than 1, indicating that the established thermal sensation model had a good prediction effect.

A Trilayered Composite Fabric with Directional Water Transport and Resistance to Blood Penetration for Medical Protective Clothing.

Functional textiles with enhanced moisture management can facilitate sweat transport away from the skin to improve personal comfort. However, porous materials exhibit low capability of preventing the intrusion of external liquids, becoming a bottleneck in the design of medical protective clothing. Herein, a trilayered composite fabric based on a gradient wettability structure is demonstrated for directional water transport and resistance to blood penetration. The proposed fabric shows distinct advantages, including a high water breakthrough pressure of 2.43 kPa from the external side, an outstanding positive water transport index (1522%), and an antiblood penetration resistance of 2.71 kPa. Moreover, the fabric shows improved comfort with a high moisture transmission (320 g m-2 h-1) and desired water evaporation rate (0.36 g h-1). This work addressed the concern of directional water transport and resistance to blood penetration while providing a comfortable wearing microenvironment, leading to a promising research direction for multifunctional medical textiles.