Development of self-decontaminating masks and protective clothing against COVID-19 coronavirus and other biohazards

COVID-19大流行无情地提醒我们控制病毒传播的难度。如果医务人员目前使用的口罩和防护服能够保护他们不被暴露，那么被污染的防护装备就可以作为冠状病毒的媒介，并导致其他患者、其他医务人员和个人物品/家庭成员受到污染。自我净化的口罩和防护服可以防止这个问题。已知N-卤胺是一种非常有效和快速作用的抗细菌和病毒的杀生物剂。含有N-卤胺官能团的材料可以很容易地接枝到纺织品上，并且一旦活性基团被去污过程消耗，通过次氯酸钠（漂白剂）处理可以有效地再生。然而，N-卤胺对光敏感，并且它们的应用通常限于内衣和内表面。 该项目旨在开发用于纺织品的耐光N-卤胺处理。N-卤胺将与作为UV吸收剂的金属氧化物纳米颗粒结合。在防护服和面罩应用的情况下，它们将作为织物上的整理剂施用。对于呼吸器应用，耐光N-卤胺/金属氧化物纳米颗粒系统将用于官能化通过静电纺丝生产的随机分布的聚丙烯纤维毡，使得它们的自去污功能可以受益于纳米纤维提供的大表面积。 该项目结合了纺织科学、防护设备、化学、静电纺丝和纺织制造方面的专业知识。这将有助于避免交叉污染，并限制引起COVID-19的冠状病毒从患者传播到医护人员以及患者之间的传播。从长远来看，它还将降低医院获得性感染的发病率，每年约有8，000名加拿大人死于医院感染。

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a rude reminder of the difficulty in controlling the propagation of viruses. If masks and protective clothing currently used by medical personnel can protect them from being exposed, the contaminated protective equipment can act as a vector for the coronavirus and lead to the contamination of other patients, other medical personnel and personal objects/family members. Self-decontaminating masks and protective clothing could prevent this issue. It is known that N-halamines are a very efficient and fast acting biocide against bacteria and viruses. Materials that contain the N-halamine functionality can easily be grafted on textiles and are efficiently regenerated by treatment with sodium hypochlorite (bleach) once the active group has been consumed by the decontamination process. However, N-halamines are sensitive to light and their applications have generally been limited to undergarments and inner surfaces. The project aims at developing light-resistant N-halamine treatments for textiles. N-halamines will be combined with metal oxide nanoparticles acting as UV absorbers. In the case of protective clothing and facemask applications, they will be applied as a finish on the fabrics. For respirator application, the light-resistant N-halamine/metal oxide nanoparticle system will be used to functionalize randomly distributed polypropylene nanofiber mats produced by electrospinning so that their self-decontamination function can benefit from the large surface area offered by the nanofibers. This project combines expertise in textile science, protective equipment, chemistry, electrospinning, and textile manufacturing. It will contribute to avoid cross contamination and limit the propagation of the COVID-19-causing coronavirus from patients to healthcare workers and between patients. On a long-term perspective, it will also allow reducing the rate of hospital-acquired infections, which kill about 8,000 Canadians per year.