Increasing and testing the filtration efficiency of masks using a laboratory-built electrospinning device

Many viruses (such as coronavirus causing the Covid-19 pandemic) can spread between people mostly by infected aerosol particles. A fundamental method of defense is to use a face mask in public. Masks have a classification system based on their filtration efficiency. A common issue that arose at the beginning of the pandemic was that due to the shortage of supply of classified masks, textile masks without the required filtration efficiency were used. A possible solution to this problem is creating a mask consisting of a textile fabric and an electrospun nanofiber layer, which has better filtration properties than masks made of textile material alone. The motivation of the work was to design a simple and economical device to produce face masks with improved filtering, which could be a solution in case of stock shortages. Electric field simulation was used to test several cases of a model, examining different parameters to find the optimal setup. Such test parameters included the number of needles and their distance from each other. For measurements with several needles, the positioning is mainly based on the distribution of the electric field and the influence of the needles on each other. This step provides the equipment to create a mask-size, uniform layer of nanofibers with improved filtration efficiency, which can be tested in the laboratory. Other important parameters that can be obtained during testing are the properties of the solution, the electrode distance, and the voltage level.