Graphene Oxide Modified Microtubular ZnO Antibacterial Agents for a Photocatalytic Filter in a Facial Mask

Abstract

Bacterial infections have threatened human health significantly due to the misuse of antibiotics and iterations of multi-drug-resistant bacteria. Inorganic antimicrobial ZnO agents can effectively solve the bacterial drug resistance and play an important role as commonly used photocatalysts in the fields of antibacterial, water purification, and air purification. Herein, graphene oxide (GO) modified ZnO microtubular composite photocatalytic antimicrobial agents (PAA) were fabricated via the optical vapor phase supersaturation and drop-spraying method, by which the photocatalytic activity was boosted and achieved more than 98% antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus under sunlight irradiation. The ZnO/GO PAA can further combine with a polypropylene-based photocatalytic filter for high antibacterial activity, rapid sterilization, and well reusability. Under a UV irradiation of ∼150 s, the antibacterial efficiency of a filter modified facial mask (F-Mask) degrades particles and bacteria up to 100%. The photocatalytic antibacterial F-Mask exhibits outstanding mechanical flexibility for over 300 bending cycles. This work provides a platform for the design of antibacterial filter materials to alleviate the social epidemic prevention pressure during the period of large-scale epidemics.

Growth of β-Ga2O3 Single-Crystal Microbelts by the Optical Vapor Supersaturated Precipitation Method

“…Therefore, the sophisticated fabrication processes in the above techniques limit the development of the practical routes; for example, the time-consuming growth process lowers the growth efficiency, the complexity of the fabricating procedure for the substrate increases the cost, and the metal-assisted catalytic method can lead to the unintentional doping of the β-Ga 2 O 3 to form deep-level impurities inside the micro-/nanostructures. Compared with these approaches, the one-step optical vapor supersaturated precipitation (OVSP) method, which was able to adjust the gas flux, growth time, growth power, and other parameters during the growing process in real time, was impressive [23][24][25][26]. During the OVSP process, the growth driving force is based on vapor supersaturated precipitation in the homogeneous temperature field, which is conducive to avoiding the generation of compensation defects.…”

Enhancement of a Graphene-Based Near-Field Thermophotovoltaic System by Optimization Algorithms and Dynamic Regulations

“…To make the system more applicative, the operating temperature of a TPV receiver is always set to near room temperature and the emitter temperature is adjustable. Graphene is widely used in nano materials owing to its striking optical and electrical properties [28]. Recently, it has been experimentally proven that graphene plays an important role in improving the performance of NFTPV systems [29,30].…”