Design and development of a nanofiber reinforced multilayered cloth face mask

Abstract

The use of medical masks in daily life has become inevitable due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Especially at the beginning of the pandemic, the supply of face masks was unable to meet the demand. Also, medical masks are causing plastic waste since they are not sustainable. Accordingly, cloth masks have the potential to be an environmentally friendly and sustainable alternative to medical masks. In this study, it was aimed to develop two and three layered cloth masks, and investigate the effects of fabric parameters of the masks on the bacterial filtration efficiency (BFE). Four fabrics with different cover factors were woven. The raising finishing was applied to the outer layer to increase the filtration by closing the pores on the surface. An electrospun nanofiber layer was also used as a mid-layer to improve bacterial filtration. All BFE results were higher than the minimum standard BFE of 90%. The results showed that an electrospun mid-layer was more effective for increasing the BFE compared to raising finishing onto the outer layer of the masks. The BFE improved slightly when the cover factor of the fabric increased.