Face mask with an electric field can zap coronavirus on contact, researchers say

Researchers at Indiana University say a new fabric they have designed could kill the coronavirus on contact with an electric current.

It’s a fabric researchers hope could be used as personal protective equipment (or PPE) in the fight against the coronavirus, which has infected more than 1.6 million in the United States and killed 98,000 as of May 26, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The fabric has already been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in wound dressing, but lead researcher Chandan Sen saw potential for more when the coronavirus pandemic began, he told the Indianapolis Star.

“We are not a virus lab, but given everything that was going on around us, it was unacceptable to sit at home,” said Sen, who is the director of the Indiana Center for Regenerative Medicine and Engineering at the IU School of Medicine.

Sen’s fabric is a part of the field of electroceuticals, which is “a fusion of the words ‘electrostatic’ and pharmaceuticals,’” according to Forbes.

Printed with zinc and silver metal dots, the fabric generates a low-level electric field when it is moist and then kills the virus, according to the university.

Research results determined the virus “is fully eliminated within one minute of contact with the fabric”, IU stated.

The preliminary report from Sen and Indiana University has not been peer-reviewed and “additional studies are necessary,” according to the researcher.Sen offered hope the fabric could provide a breakthrough in PPE technology.

“This work presents the first evidence demonstrating that the physical characteristic features of coronaviruses may be exploited to render them non-infective following contract with low-level electric field-generating electroceutical fabric,” Sen said, according to IU.

Vomaris currently commercializes the fabric used for wound dressing. Its president and CEO, Mike Nagel, said they are “extremely encouraged” by the results of the new technology.

“Because this embedded microcell battery technology can be applied to a wide variety of materials, we believe it has the potential to usher in a whole new way to think about PPE,” he said in a release.

Nagel told the Indianapolis Star his company hopes to be selling washable masks and disposable masks using the fabric this fall.

This story was originally published May 26, 2020 at 11:20 AM with the headline "Face mask with an electric field can zap coronavirus on contact, researchers say."