Pune

Coronavirus Pune: CSIR-NCL comes up with better filtration efficiency face masks

Manasi Saraf Joshi

Pune: CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory (CSIR-NCL), Pune has developed a superior face mask which has better filtration efficiency than the available face masks in the market. The masks were made using the Nanocellulose technology along with Nano coating.

CSIR-NCL team
A team lead by Dr Syed Dastager, Dr Mahesh Dharne and Dr Shubhangi Umbarkar used CSIR-NCL’s patented bacterial Nanocellulose technology along with Nano coating. “The cotton cloth coated in a solution of bacterial cellulose and nanomaterial completely prevented the penetration of bacterial growth, indicating promise as a material for face mask filter,” said the scientists.

The scientists prepared prototype face masks using Spun bond polypropylene medical-grade cloth to evaluate bacterial filtration efficiency (BFE), particulate filter efficiency (PFE), breathability, flammability, and splash resistance tests.

Quality check
The South India Textile Research Association (SITRA), Coimbatore, a government-approved certifying nodal agency for medical textiles conducted these tests on CSIR-NCL’s sample face masks for confirming the quality.

“The bacterial filtration efficiency (BFE) of CSIR-NCL mask is 99.9 per cent according to the ASTM standard using aerosols of human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus. The particulate filter efficiency (PFE) test, another quality indicator for face masks with dried air passing through an atomiser followed by charge neutralizer to produce an aerosol of 0.3 μm diameter at a challenge velocity of 28 litres per min showed a high value of 92.63 per cent PFE, indicating high restriction of hazardous particulates”, said the scientists.

The face mask qualified the tests for splash resistance to measure prevention against splashes of blood and body fluids. The pressure differential of 28.0 Pascal per cm 2 indicated easy breathability through the facemask as medical grade and is of Class-1 material in flammability test.

CSIR-NCL has licensed the biopolymer nano-coated technology to Pune-based MSME SETLAB INDIA. The technology is transferred as per the CSIR guidelines for COVID-19 for rapid indigenous production. SETLAB plans to start production in the next few days with 5,000 masks per day and will gradually reach the target of one lakh masks per day.

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