People wearing masks are seen commuting at Sindorim Station in southwestern Seoul on May 6, 2020. (Yonhap)
DAEJEON, March 24 (Korea Bizwire) — The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology announced Tuesday that it has developed technology to mass produce nanofabric filters for protective masks using centrifugal force.
Nano-fabric filters, unlike other filters that rely on electrostatic mechanisms to collect foreign particles, can sustain their capacity to collect dust particles in humid conditions, enabling them to be used multiple times.
To produce a fabric this thin, however, requires kilovolts of voltage, which is only enough to make 1 gram of nano-fabric per hour.
The research team overcame this issue by developing a centrifugal spinning disk system that discharges highly polymerized solution by spinning it like a cotton candy machine.
The disk consists of three layers to speed up the process of producing nano-fabric filters.
This new system succeeded in producing 25 grams of nano-fabric only 500 nanometers thick in a single hour, enough to make 30 KF94 mask filters.
The production capability is 30 times larger than the previous electrospinning method.
The mask filters developed by the research team can fully intercept droplets. Depending on the type of fabric used, the filters can outmatch the interception capabilities of KF80 masks.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
