The COVID-19 pandemic has stressed healthcare systems and supply lines, forcing medical doctors to risk infection by decontaminating and reusing single-use medical personal protective equipment. The uncertain future of the pandemic is compounded by limited data on the ability of the responsible virus, SARS-CoV-2, to survive across various climates, preventing epidemiologists from accurately modeling its spread. However, a detailed thermodynamic analysis of experimental data on the inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 and related coronaviruses can enable a fundamental understanding of their thermal degradation that will help model the COVID-19 pandemic and mitigate future outbreaks. This paper introduces a thermodynamic model that synthesizes existing data into an analytical framework built on first principles, including the rate law and the Arrhenius equation, to accurately predict the temperature-dependent inactivation of coronaviruses. The model provides much-needed thermal decontamination guidelines for personal protective equipment, including masks. For example, at 70 °C, a 3-log (99.9%) reduction in virus concentration can be achieved in ≈ 3 minutes and can be performed in most home ovens without reducing the efficacy of typical N95 masks. The model will also allow for epidemiologists to incorporate the lifetime of SARS-CoV-2 as a continuous function of environmental temperature into models forecasting the spread of coronaviruses across different climates and seasons.

The COVID-19 pandemic has stressed healthcare systems and supply lines, forcing medical doctors to risk infection by decontaminating and reusing single-use personal protective equipment. The uncertain future of the pandemic is compounded by limited data on the ability of the responsible virus, SARS-CoV-2, to survive across various climates, preventing epidemiologists from accurately modeling its spread. However, a detailed thermodynamic analysis of experimental data on the inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 and related coronaviruses can enable a fundamental understanding of their thermal degradation that will help model the COVID-19 pandemic and mitigate future outbreaks. This work introduces a thermodynamic model that synthesizes existing data into an analytical framework built on first principles, including the rate law for a first-order reaction and the Arrhenius equation, to accurately predict the temperature-dependent inactivation of coronaviruses. The model provides much-needed thermal decontamination guidelines for personal protective equipment, including masks. For example, at 70 °C, a 3-log (99.9%) reduction in virus concentration can be achieved, on average, in 3 min (under the same conditions, a more conservative decontamination time of 39 min represents the upper limit of a 95% interval) and can be performed in most home ovens without reducing the efficacy of typical N95 masks as shown in recent experimental reports. This model will also allow for epidemiologists to incorporate the lifetime of SARS-CoV-2 as a continuous function of environmental temperature into models forecasting the spread of the pandemic across different climates and seasons.

Textiles hold great promise as a soft yet durable material for building comfortable robotic wearables and assistive devices at low cost. Nevertheless, the development of smart wearables composed entirely of textiles has been hindered by the lack of a viable sheet-based logic architecture that can be implemented using conventional fabric materials and textile manufacturing processes. Here, we develop a fully textile platform for embedding pneumatic digital logic in wearable devices. Our logic-enabled textiles support combinational and sequential logic functions, onboard memory storage, user interaction, and direct interfacing with pneumatic actuators. In addition, they are designed to be lightweight, easily integrable into regular clothing, made using scalable fabrication techniques, and durable enough to withstand everyday use. We demonstrate a textile computer capable of input-driven digital logic for controlling untethered wearable robots that assist users with functional limitations. Our logic platform will facilitate the emergence of future wearables powered by embedded fluidic logic that fully leverage the innate advantages of their textile construction.

Wearable assistive, rehabilitative, and augmentative devices currently require bulky power supplies, often making these tools more of a burden than an asset. This work introduces a soft, low-profile, textile-based pneumatic energy harvesting system that extracts power directly from the foot strike of a user during walking. Energy is harvested with a textile pump integrated into the insole of the user’s shoe and stored in a wearable textile bladder to operate pneumatic actuators on demand, with system performance optimized based on a mechano-fluidic model. The system recovered a maximum average power of nearly 3 W with over 20% conversion efficiency—outperforming electromagnetic, piezoelectric, and triboelectric alternatives—and was used to power a wearable arm-lift device that assists shoulder motion and a supernumerary robotic arm, demonstrating its capability as a lightweight, low-cost, and comfortable solution to support adults with upper body functional limitations in activities of daily living.

The COVID-19 pandemic has stressed healthcare systems and supply lines, forcing medical doctors to risk infection by decontaminating and reusing single-use medical personal protective equipment. The uncertain future of the pandemic is compounded by limited data on the ability of the responsible virus, SARS-CoV-2, to survive across various climates, preventing epidemiologists from accurately modeling its spread. However, a detailed thermodynamic analysis of experimental data on the inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 and related coronaviruses can enable a fundamental understanding of their thermal degradation that will help model the COVID-19 pandemic and mitigate future outbreaks. This paper introduces a thermodynamic model that synthesizes existing data into an analytical framework built on first principles, including the rate law and the Arrhenius equation, to accurately predict the temperature-dependent inactivation of coronaviruses. The model provides much-needed thermal decontamination guidelines for personal protective equipment, including masks. For example, at 70 °C, a 3-log (99.9%) reduction in virus concentration can be achieved in ≈ 3 minutes and can be performed in most home ovens without reducing the efficacy of typical N95 masks. The model will also allow for epidemiologists to incorporate the lifetime of SARS-CoV-2 as a continuous function of environmental temperature into models forecasting the spread of coronaviruses across different climates and seasons.