Promotion of Surgical Masks Antimicrobial Activity by Disinfection and Impregnation with Disinfectant Silver Nanoparticles

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is requesting highly effective protective personnel equipment, mainly for healthcare professionals. However, the current demand has exceeded the supply chain and, consequently, shortage of essential medical materials, such as surgical masks. Due to these alarming limitations, it is crucial to develop effective means of disinfection, reusing, and thereby applying antimicrobial shielding protection to the clinical supplies. Purpose: Therefore, in this work, we developed a novel, economical, and straightforward approach to promote antimicrobial activity to surgical masks by impregnating silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). Methods: Our strategy consisted of fabricating a new alcohol disinfectant formulation combining special surfactants and AgNPs, which is demonstrated to be extensively effective against a broad number of microbial surrogates of SARS-CoV-2. Results: The present nano-formula reported a superior microbial reduction of 99.999% against a wide number of microorganisms. Furthermore, the enveloped H5N1 virus was wholly inactivated after 15 min of disinfection. Far more attractive, the current method for reusing surgical masks did not show outcomes of detrimental amendments, suggesting that the protocol does not alter the filtration effectiveness. Conclusion: The nano-disinfectant provides a valuable strategy for effective decontamination, reuse, and even antimicrobial promotion to surgical masks for frontline clinical personnel. Keywords: surgical mask, antimicrobial, SARS-CoV-2, nanobiotechnology, COVID-19, nanoparticles