Reusable MoS2-Modified Antibacterial Fabrics with Photothermal Disinfection Properties for Repurposing of Personal Protective Masks

• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.1c00083
• Publication Date: 2021-03-09T17:31:27Z
• Authors: Praveen Kumar; Shounak Roy; Ankita Sarkar; Amit Jaiswal
• Keywords: Nanosheet; Molybdenum disulfide; Filtration (mathematics); Nanomaterials

The current pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has seen a widespread use of personal protective equipment, especially face masks. This created the need to develop better and reusable masks with built-in antimicrobial, self-cleaning, aerosol filtration properties prevent transmission air-borne pathogens such as coronaviruses. Herein, molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) nanosheets are used prepare modified polycotton fabrics having excellent antibacterial activity photothermal properties. Upon sunlight irradiation, nanosheet-modified rapidly increased surface temperature ∼77 °C, making them ideal for sunlight-mediated self-disinfection. Complete self-disinfection fabric was achieved within 3 min favorably upon maintained efficiency even after 60 washing cycles. Furthermore, particle three-layered surgical found be significantly improved through incorporation MoS2-modified an additional layer clothing, without compromising breathability repurposed could filter out around 97% 200 nm particles 96% 100 particles, thus potentially useful preventing spread coronaviruses (120 nm) trapping along protection against other airborne pathogens.