New nanotech coating provides greater protection: IIT Guwahati research
The Hindu
Cheaper and more comfortable than N-95 with higher breathability, says team
Researchers at IIT Guwahati have developed a nanotechnology-based coating which can be applied on regular cotton and silk masks. The end result provides greater protection against at a lower cost and higher breathability than N-95 masks, they said in a paper recently published in the ACS Applied Biomaterials journal.
“A cloth mask is largely porous to aerosol and thus cannot effectively prevent COVID-19 type infection. Though they are still better than wearing no mask, an improved version that would prevent the entry or exit of the aerosol from the modified cloth mask was needed,” explained Arun Chattopadhyay, a professor in IIT Guwahati’s Chemistry department and Centre for Nanotechnology who led the research team. “We have worked on that based on the principle of repulsion of the aerosol by the modified cloth while allowing the air to flow through the mask. A simple coating of the hydrophobic molecule on the silk cloth worked well here.”