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Biodegradable Electrospun Nanofiber Membranes as Promising Candidates for the Development of Face Masks

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2023 27 citations ? Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count.
Rujun Shen, Yunlong Guo, Shuaijie Wang, Ayikezi Tuerxun, Jiaqi He, Ye Bian

Summary

This review examines the development of biodegradable electrospun nanofiber membranes as alternatives to conventional plastic face masks. Researchers summarize progress on materials including silk fibroin, polylactic acid, chitosan, cellulose, and zein, which can achieve strong filtration performance. The study highlights that degradable nanofiber filters offer a promising solution to reduce the environmental burden of plastic pollution from disposable face masks.

Polymers

Aerosol particles, such as the widespread COVID-19 recently, have posed a great threat to humans. Combat experience has proven that masks can protect against viruses; however, the epidemic in recent years has caused serious environmental pollution from plastic medical supplies, especially masks. Degradable filters are promising candidates to alleviate this problem. Degradable nanofiber filters, which are developed by the electrospinning technique, can achieve superior filtration performance. This review focuses on the basic introduction to air filtration, the general aspects of face masks, and nanofibers. Furthermore, the progress of the state of art degradable electrospun nanofiber filters have been summarized, such as silk fibroin (SF), polylactic acid (PLA), chitosan, cellulose, and zein. Finally, the challenges and future development are highlighted.

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