Within the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, personal protective equipment, including face masks, is one important tool to interrupt virus transmission chains within the community. In this context, the quality of different face masks is frequently discussed and should, therefore, be evaluated. In this study, nanofleece textiles with a particle filtering effect and textiles with a self-disinfecting treatment were examined, which may be combined in face masks. Firstly, newly developed nanofleece textiles were tested regarding their filtration efficiency against airborne coronavirus, using feline coronavirus (FCoV) as a surrogate for SARS-CoV-2. The tested nanofleece textiles showed filtration efficiencies of over 95% against FCoV when used as a double layer and were, therefore, almost on par with the FFP-2 mask material, which was used as a reference. Secondly, eight treated, self-disinfecting textiles, which may increase the safety in the handling of potentially contaminated masks, were tested against SARS-CoV-2. Three out of eight treated textiles showed significant activity against SARS-CoV-2 and achieved about three LOG10 (99.9%) of virus titer reduction after twelve hours of incubation. Since all possible transmission paths of SARS-CoV-2, as well as the minimal infection doses, remain unknown, both investigated approaches seem to be useful tools to lower the virus spread within the community.
Wearing face masks during pandemics is an important protective measure against the spreading of virus‐related infectious diseases. Nevertheless, the risk of indirect transmission of virus by handling masks is one of the earliest concerns. This problem can be minimized by supplementing the masks’ textile structure with virus protective coatings. Therefore, in this concept, suitable techniques for manufacturing virus protective filter media should be evaluated. In this study, nonwoven polyamide 6 (PA6) filter material is functionalized with negatively charged linear polyglycerol sulfate (LPGS) as a virus binding functional group. Two coating conditions are investigated in which the direct covalent coating with LPGS has emerged as the optimum coating method, showing no damage to the PA6 nanofiber structure. The uncoated PA6 and LPGS‐coated PA6 filter materials exhibited virus particle filtration efficiencies of 95% and 94% for airborne feline coronavirus, 98% and 86% for airborne equine herpesvirus 1(EHV‐1), respectively. However, the SARS‐CoV‐2 absorption assay in solution indicates that the LPGS coating reduces viral titres up to 71% when incubating with the LPGS‐coated PA6 filter media for one‐hour. Thus, such an effect is not seen for uncoated PA6 materials. These findings confirm the suitability of LPGS coating as a suitable platform for suppression the spreading of viruses in different pandemics.
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