Ricerc@Sapienza

The recent outbreak of the severe acute respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has been requiring a worldwide massive use of barrier masks to reduce the spread of the pandemic. While the use of disposable face masks undoubtedly causes a major concern about environmental sustainability and ecological footprint, reusable barrier masks require standardized decontamination procedures before further use. Nevertheless, there is a lack of information about the effectiveness of such procedures and their actual effect on physicochemical and biological properties of fabrics and face masks materials. The present project aims at laying the foundations to bridge this gap through the review, selection and testing of suitable methods for the decontamination of barrier masks. The effect of decontamination procedures will be investigated from the macroscale down to the nanoscale to identify possible detrimental effects on devices and assess the most suitable methodologies. The maximum allowed decontamination cycles and, thus, the maximum number of reuses will be also verified. Face mask materials (supplied also by external partners of the project) will be analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) to evaluate the effect on the fabrics' morphology and chemical composition. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and advanced AFM based methods will be used to quantify morphological parameters at the scale of a single fiber and variations in the mechanical properties. The samples wettability will be examined by contact angle tests. Moreover, preliminary biological tests will be performed to obtain a first evaluation of the treatments effectiveness using bacterial bioburden tests and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). Finally, with the contribution of external partners, microbiological and virological studies will be performed to assess the biological properties of face masks.