Silver Nanoparticle-Decorated Personal Protective Equipment for Inhibiting Human Coronavirus Infectivity

Abstract

The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) global outbreak and its continued growth and mutation into various forms emphasize the need for effective disinfectants to assist in the reduction of the virus’s spread from individual to individuals and community to communities through various modes, including coughing, sneezing, touching of contaminated surfaces, and being in proximity of an unprotected infected person, to mention a few. The rapid development of reliable disinfecting materials or solutions and their incorporation in personal protective equipment is a critical need at the moment that will assist significantly in curbing the spread of the virus SARS-CoV-2, the cause of COVID-19 illness. Here, we present an in situ assembly of antiviral metal nanoparticles on a rigid surface and on commercial face masks made up of nonwoven and woven textiles. The results indicate a very high efficacy of 99.99% against a surrogate virus to SARS-CoV-2. Such a versatile and cost-effective approach using the blade-coating technique can be easily extended to the roll-to-roll manufacturing setting to expedite the efforts and mitigate the rapid spread of the virus.

Antiviral nanopharmaceuticals: Engineered surface interactions and virus‐selective activity

“…Silver‐based nanosystems were also well‐represented among new studies. Silver NP (AgNPs) decorated PPEs were tested for their inhibition against a surrogate to SARS‐CoV‐2 (Abulikemu et al, 2021). AgNPs were also tested as a potential nanopharmaceutical, demonstrating activity toward virus during in vitro pretreatment and cell‐based post‐treatment assays (Jeremiah et al, 2020).…”

Chemical Nature of Metals and Metal-Based Materials in Inactivation of Viruses

“…More recently, a novel mask decorated with Ag NPs has been fabricated to inhibit the transmission of human coronavirus [ 66 ]. In this study, Ag NPs coating was created on glass, face masks, and cotton textiles by reactive blade-coating technology, and the average diameter of Ag NPs was approximately 27 nm.…”

Reactive silver inks for antiviral, repellent medical textiles with ultrasonic bleach washing durability compared to silver nanoparticles

“…Silver nanoparticles have poor adhesion to the underlying textile fibers due to the small contact area and weak van der Waals forces with the textiles. Significant research has been dedicated to improving the adhesion forces of silver nanoparticles with textile fibers such as the use of polymer coatings [ 26 ], polymer binders [ 27 ], binders [ 12 , 28 ], silanization [ 29 ], in-situ reduction [ 13 ] and nanoparticle/polymer composites [ 30 ]. Nevertheless, nanoparticle-based methods are inherently limited by the non-uniformity of the particle deposition and difficulties in controlling silver release [ 31 , 32 ].…”

“…The size of the silver nanoparticles is considered as it is the maximum size to offer virus inhibition with HSV-1 and HIV-1 [ 17 , 43 ]. Also, silver nanoparticles of similar size are shown to inhibit human coronavirus on mask fabric [ 12 ].…”

“…There has been a tremendous amount of research on the use of silver nanoparticles as an antimicrobial agent [5,6] and their incorporation into a range of fabrics or masks [7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. Silver nanoparticles have been shown to inhibit the growth of yeast, Escherichia coli, and Staphylococcus aureus [14].…”