16 June 2020

Thanks to your support of the Bristol City Centre Hospitals Appeal, Above & Beyond has been able to fund innovative research into a 'self-cleaning' surgical mask.

A Danish designer, Sara Lee Spanggaard Krog, consultant urologist, Prof Raj Persad (BUI), Prof. Norman Ratcliffe (Dept. Applied Sciences, UWE), Steve Hughes, electronic design, and a virologist Dr Ewelina Król, (Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology, University of Gdansk) have teamed together to combat Covid-19, with funding from Above & Beyond.

The team are designing a new type of electronic mask based on enhanced degradation of viruses (by UV radiation and catalytic oxidation), which will allow greater lifetime use of masks by self cleaning.

Sara Lee Spanggaard Krog said: "In this process the team will work across the disciplines of textile design, chemistry, electro engineering and virology. We will use construction methods to develop a pattern for a face mask which will be printed with metal oxide semiconductors. This material will then be irradiated by low power light emitting diodes to produce a photocatalytic effect, with the intention of oxidising and disarming the virus. 

"User studies will be conducted to determine suitable materials and comfortable designs.

"If the mask proves to successfully disarm viruses, the future of the mask could be substantial. If commercialised, it could prove to make a real difference, not least to vulnerable people and people being exposed on a regular basis, such as hospital staff, supermarket workers and bus drivers."

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You could help fund a research breakthrough that will save lives and beat Covid-19 forever. Please donate to the Bristol City Centre Hospitals Appeal.