Anti-viral fabric coatings for high effectiveness personal protective equipment (Covid-19)

SARS-CoV-2通过吸入或通过粘液接触受病毒污染的飞沫传播。除了社交距离外，口罩和手套不仅越来越多地被推荐给医疗保健和基本工作者，而且也越来越多地被推荐给普通公众。高效口罩(如医用口罩或N95口罩)和医用手套虽然在有限的使用时间内有效，但不能为全体人口规模化生产，来自世界各地的卫生保健提供者迫切要求确保足够的个人防护设备(PPE)供应。 在这里，我们提出了一系列简单、稳定的抗病毒涂层应用到织物上。这种涂层可以在接触时杀死病毒，医护人员可以将其涂在低效口罩上，使其相当于N95口罩或更高的口罩，普通公众也可以涂在他们可能已经拥有的围巾或手套上。因此，这种涂层将最大限度地减少通过吸入飞沫或手部传播的感染。我们建议的涂层价格低廉、可伸缩、无毒、易于沉积，并将具有持久的抗病毒效果。布拉克福德有限公司是世界领先的化工原料生产商，在悬浮剂、增稠剂和分散剂的配方方面拥有丰富的专业知识。他们是我们的合作伙伴，因为他们对我们的方法和我们的成果商业化非常感兴趣。在这个项目中，他们将为涂料配方提供科学意见，并提供监管和营销咨询：在研究涂料的化学成分并测试其抗病毒性能的同时，我们将了解涂料需要遵守的法规要求，以及营销/生产限制。这一完全整合的方法包括科学发展、生产愿景和监管理解，将使我们能够提供一种可以很快向公众推出的产品。考虑到疫情的紧迫性，以及拟议的涂料将给人们带来的好处--能够回到不那么受限的生活，以及作为解决目前个人防护用品严重短缺的一种方式--对医护人员来说，这是至关重要的。

SARS-CoV-2 spreads by inhalation or by mucous contact with virus-contaminated droplets. In addition to social distancing, masks and gloves have become increasingly recommended not just for healthcare and essential workers but also for the general public. High-efficacy masks (e.g. surgical masks or N95 masks) and medical gloves, while effective in limited duration, cannot be produced at scale for the whole population and health care providers from all over the world have made desperate pleas to secure adequate supplies of personal protection equipment (PPE). Here we propose a series of antiviral coatings to be applied easily and stably to fabric. The coatings would kill the virus upon contact, and could be applied both by healthcare workers on low-efficacy masks to make them equivalent to N95 masks or higher, and by the general public, on scarves or gloves that they may already own. The coatings would thus minimize infections through both droplet inhalation or hand-to-face transmission. The coatings we propose are inexpensive, scalable, nontoxic, easy to deposit and will have long-lasting antiviral effect. Blachford Ltd is a world leading chemical material producer with great expertise in formulation of suspensions, thickeners, and dispersions. They are our partner as they are highly interested in our approach and in the commercialization of our results. During this project they will provide both scientific input on coating formulation and regulatory and marketing consultations: while working on the chemistry of the coatings and testing them for antiviral properties, we will understand the regulatory requirements that coatings will need to comply to, and the marketing/production constraints. This fully integrated approach that includes scientific development, production vision and regulatory understanding will allow us to deliver a product that can be brought to the public very soon. This is crucial given the urgency of the pandemic and the benefits that the proposed coatings will bring to the population in terms of being able to go back to a less restricted life, and to the healthcare workers as a way to solve the current drastic shortage of PPE.