With the shortage of N95 masks, most citizens have either gone without, used a surgical type mask, or some other makeshift or home made solution. The limitation is that these makeshift masks do not prevent self exposure effectively, and even if an effective material with a good seal were designed (several are out there), the ability to re-use is questionable.
Cleaning with chemicals such as H2O2 or quaternary amines can be time consuming, compromise the mask integrity, leave hazardous chemical residue, or be ineffective.
If I am thinking about the problem correctly, what we need is a volatile antiviral that acts quickly, evaporates quickly, doesn't damage the material, and leaves no residue.
I was wondering about light hydrocarbons or even gases, such as ethylchloride, which got me wondering about dry cleaning fluid (tetrachloroethylene). I haven't found much on the web, but I did find this article from 1993, which states that TCE was ineffective for NON-ENVELOPED viruses. The coronavirus is enveloped, however, and I wonder if something volatile might disrupt/dissolve enough of the envelope to deactivate.
Here's the article:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8099924/
Apologies if this has already been discussed, or if it's already been disproven. Just thought it would be pretty easy to spray a little chloroethane, or even some methylene chloride on a mask.
Cleaning with chemicals such as H2O2 or quaternary amines can be time consuming, compromise the mask integrity, leave hazardous chemical residue, or be ineffective.
If I am thinking about the problem correctly, what we need is a volatile antiviral that acts quickly, evaporates quickly, doesn't damage the material, and leaves no residue.
I was wondering about light hydrocarbons or even gases, such as ethylchloride, which got me wondering about dry cleaning fluid (tetrachloroethylene). I haven't found much on the web, but I did find this article from 1993, which states that TCE was ineffective for NON-ENVELOPED viruses. The coronavirus is enveloped, however, and I wonder if something volatile might disrupt/dissolve enough of the envelope to deactivate.
Here's the article:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8099924/
Apologies if this has already been discussed, or if it's already been disproven. Just thought it would be pretty easy to spray a little chloroethane, or even some methylene chloride on a mask.
