TriboE Mask

• 09 Jun 2020

• A team of researchers at the Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS), Bangalore, has come up with a recipe for making face masks, termed as TriboE Mask that can hold electric charges to restrict the entry of infections but interestingly, without any external power.
• The innovation relies on electrostatics. When two non-conducting layers are rubbed against each other, the layers develop positive and negative charges instantly and continue to hold the charges for some time. This electric field, quite strong at proximity, has been used to deactivate or possibly even kill the germs.
• The idea comes from physics textbooks on triboelectricity (The triboelectric effect is a type of contact electrification on which certain materials become electrically charged after they are separated from a different material with which they were in contact). In this case they used two outer layers of polypropylene and inner material –Nylon.