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The development of an alternative methodology to measure the particle size allowed passing through face masks using a Scanning Electron Microscopy
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  • Jesús Arenas-Alatorre,
  • Samuel Tehuacanero Cuapa,
  • Carlos Magaña-Zavala,
  • Cecilia Noguez
Jesús Arenas-Alatorre
Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico Instituto de Fisica

Corresponding Author:jarenas@fisica.unam.mx

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Samuel Tehuacanero Cuapa
Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico Instituto de Fisica
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Carlos Magaña-Zavala
Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico Instituto de Fisica
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Cecilia Noguez
Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico Instituto de Fisica
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Abstract

At the end of 2019, in the city of Wuhan, China, a new highly infectious coronavirus affecting the respiratory tract was announced. It was named SARS-Cov2, causing deaths in the population. In the face of this global health emergency, many medical and protective supplies were quickly depleted, and some others of dubious quality emerged, including face masks for medical and population use. Given this uncertainty, this working group developed a complementary methodology to the wind tunnel, a technique usually used to measure the efficiency of particle passage in certified masks. A gravity-feed airbrush gun operating at a pressure of 60 PSI was used for this purpose. Saline water at a concentration of 20 % NaCl was used as the impact liquid on the face mask, and the deposition time was 1 s, emulating the time of sneezing or coughing. The particles that passed through the face masks were deposited in sample holders for scanning electron microscopy (SEM), where a 0.8 X 0.8 cm slide was placed on their surface and the particles covered with an Au film deposited by sputtering. The sizes of the NaCl particles that were allowed to pass through the face masks were evaluated using field-emission SEM (FSEM). It was found that at 0.5 cm between the surface of the face mask and the deposit surface, distance between mask and airbrush nozzle 2.5 cm and 1 s deposits, the particles allowed to pass through the K95 and KN 95 masks were 85% and 88% respectively in the range from 0.2 – 1-0 µm. Based on this methodology, some face masks used daily by the population were evaluated, and the results are shown in this work .
12 Oct 2024Submitted to Microscopy Research and Technique
14 Oct 2024Submission Checks Completed
14 Oct 2024Assigned to Editor
15 Oct 2024Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
17 Oct 2024Reviewer(s) Assigned