The COVID-19 occurrence is causing a global request for effective measures aimed at mitigating the infection spread. Facemasks have been identified as an essential device for people to protect themselves as well as the others from aerosol containing virus. Facemasks provide a critical barrier, reducing the number of infectious viruses or bacteria in exhaled breath. The present review describes the most relevant literature studies on materials and processing technologies used for facemask development and testing. Antibacterial and antiviral treatments are considered. Testing methods for measuring the actual performance are explained in detail. Strategies related to end use are analyzed in terms of reuse, the sanitization process, and recycling. This work derives from a synergic, multidisciplinary, and interdepartmental collaboration in the workgroup of Tuscia University, founded in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, aimed at providing scientific support and information on facemask materials.
In the present paper, the results of "Sanitser" Life European project are presented. The aim of this study was to reduce the firing temperature for ceramic body (from 1250 to 1170 °C). This was achieved substituting feldspar and quartz with recycled blend materials and a little percentage of flux (less than 3%); in a sanitary ware vitreous china formulation a waste glass, granitic materials and fired broken ceramic pieces were introduced. Tests performed on the Sanitser formulation showed that it has the same final physical-chemical characteristics of the industrial vitreous china (VC) body. Besides, different ceramic pieces (wash basin, bidet and WC pan) were compared with VC production. The results showed that Sanitser body can replace vitreous china in the sanitary ware production. In this project, the firing temperature of the ceramic body is reduced significantly with a supposed decrease of the CO 2 emissions. In Sanitser formulation, about 43.6% of recycled materials that would end in dumps were utilized. Keywords: waste glass ceramic, porcelain, slip casting, thermal application.
Resumo
Neste artigo são apresentados os resultados do projeto europeu LIFE "Sanitser". Este trabalho teve como objetivo reduzir a temperatura de queima da massa cerâmica (de 1250 para 1170 °C). Isto foi obtido substituindo a mistura de feldspato e quartzo por materiais reciclados e uma pequena percentagem de fundente (menos do que 3%); em uma formulação de massa de sanitário vitrificado foram introduzidos resíduos de vidro, granito e materiais cerâmicos quebrados após queima. Os testes realizados mostraram que a formulação Sanitser apresenta as mesmas propriedades físicas e químicas da cerâmica vitrificada (VC
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