The emergence of a pandemic affecting the respiratory system has resulted in a significant demand for face masks, however, there is limited knowledge available on the performance of various commonly available fabrics used in cloth masks. Late April, VBFF Fellow Supratik Guha published a preliminary study that demonstrated that a combination of masks made of high thread-count cotton with natural silk fabric or a chiffon weave can effectively filter out aerosol particles––if the fit is good. Since then, the article has garnered a large amount of attention and pressed worldwide. Altmetric, the tracking company, recorded the paper has now been downloaded 160,000 times and is listed on the all-time top 450 scientific papers/reports (out of 14 million such reports it tracks) in terms of online attention received. Last week, he gave a public American Chemical Society (ACS) Webinar on the topic and over 2700 people signed up for the webinar.
Link: https://www.theweek.in/news/sci-tech/2020/04/27/the-best-homemade-facemask-may-be-a-combination-of-two-fabrics.html