Indian scientists develop self-disinfecting, anti-viral face mask

New Delhi: A team of Indian scientists in collaboration with an industry partner has developed a self-disinfecting ‘Copper-based Nanoparticle-coated Anti-viral Face Mask’ to fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. The biodegradable, highly breathable, and washable mask exhibits high performance against the Covid-19 virus as well as several other viral and bacterial infections.

Public mask wearing is most effective in reducing the spread of the virus Covid-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2, an enveloped positive sense single-stranded RNA virus, where the mode of transmission is via respiratory particles that are mainly airborne. However, the Indian market is selling expensive masks that neither exhibit antiviral nor antibacterial properties, especially when people wear those and move about at densely populated places like hospitals, airports, stations, shopping malls, and so on where the virus load is very high.

“In the present scenario, where mutations in coronavirus causing the COVID-19 pandemic are fast emerging, it is an urgent necessity to develop a low-cost antiviral mask. To this end, scientists have developed the self-disinfecting ‘Copper-based Nanoparticle-coated Antiviral Face Masks’ under the Department of Science & Technology (DST) sponsored Nano-Mission project,” a release from the Ministry of Science & Technology said on Friday.

This face mask was developed by scientists at the International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), an autonomous R&D Centre of Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, in collaboration with the Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology (CSIR-CCMB) and Resil Chemicals, a Bengaluru based company.