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

SARS-CoV-2通过吸入或与病毒污染的飞沫的粘液接触传播。除了社交距离之外，口罩和手套越来越多地被推荐给医疗保健和基本工作人员以及普通公众。高效口罩（如外科口罩或N95口罩）和医用手套虽然在有限的时间内有效，但无法为所有人大规模生产，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供应。 在这里，我们提出了一系列的抗病毒涂料，以方便和稳定的织物。这种涂层可以在接触时杀死病毒，并且可以由医护人员在低效能口罩上使用，使其相当于N95口罩或更高，也可以由普通公众在他们可能已经拥有的围巾或手套上使用。因此，涂层将通过液滴吸入或手-面传播来最小化感染。我们提出的涂层是廉价的，可扩展的，无毒的，易于存款，并将具有持久的抗病毒效果。Blachford Ltd是一家世界领先的化学材料生产商，在悬浮剂，增稠剂和分散剂的配方方面具有丰富的专业知识。他们是我们的合作伙伴，因为他们对我们的方法和我们成果的商业化非常感兴趣。在此项目期间，他们将提供有关涂料配方的科学投入以及监管和营销咨询：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监管要求以及营销/生产限制。这种完全集成的方法，包括科学开发，生产愿景和监管理解，将使我们能够提供一个可以很快推向公众的产品。考虑到疫情的紧迫性，以及拟议的涂层将为人们带来的好处，即能够回到限制较少的生活，以及作为解决当前PPE严重短缺的一种方式，为医疗保健工作者带来的好处，这一点至关重要。

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.