A member of the research team wears the prototype of disposable face masks invented from autolytic piezoelectric polymer sheet (Photo: vietnamnet.vn)Hanoi (VNS/VNA) – A group of
Vietnamese researchers at the in the US have invented
high-tech biological face masks and patches to deliver vaccines into
the human body easily.
Award winning Nguyen Duc Thanh, 37, and his
research team, Nguyen Lab, used autolytic piezoelectric polymer sheets, which
has been studied by themselves and applied in organ transplantation since 2018,
to make a special type of face mask.
The invention was launched to meet the urgent need
in the US last year.
Most medical masks are made of synthetic polymers
similar to plastic bags which are unable to self dispose and pose a major
hazard to the environment. Medical masks are unable to prevent bacteria,
viruses and fine dust like KN95 or N95 masks. Meanwhile, N95 masks are very
expensive and can be used only one time, Dr Thanh said.
Thanh’s team came up with the idea of using the
autolytic piezoelectric polymer sheets that can filter the dust as effectively
as N95 but can be reused after sterilising by autoclave or ultrasound. It is
disposable after several years.
Although the sheet has been applied in many
medical products, this was the first time it has been used filtering dust,
viruses and bacteria.
Thanh said what made his masks different from
others was the piezoelectric effect of the nano film. The film can create a
small voltage layer when there is air flow (from breathing, sneezing or
coughing).
The voltage creates an invisible protection layer,
preventing the penetration of charged droplets of water bringing viruses and
bacteria.
“The polymer nano film’s filtering capacity is
almost as much as N95 and higher than normal medical face masks,” he said.
The team is doing further research and packaging
the product and plans to launch a start-up to bring the face masks to the
market.
“It is expected that the will be used
widely in one to two years time,” Thanh told vietnamnet.vn.
After sterilisation or disinfection using high
temperatures and pressure or ultrasonic vibrations, the piezoelectricity won’t
be lost.
“This feature allows the masks to be reused
for many times,” he added.
Thanh’s research team is also studying a vaccine
patch that can be applied to skin that helps deliver COVID-19 vaccines into the
human body without infections from medical workers.
The patch, like urgo patches, is expected to
distribute the vaccine to the community so quickly that people no longer have
to visit medical facilities during the lockdown.
The research has been published in the medical
journal Nature Biomedical Engineering and attracted the attention of
international scientists.
“I believe that the pandemic will soon be wiped
out globally thanks to great medical achievements like and
public awareness of wearing face masks,” Thanh said.
“I hope that I will be able to make a
contribution to that effort.”
Dr Thanh graduated from the Hanoi University of
Technology and received a PhD scholarship from the Vietnam-US Education Fund in
2008. He completed his doctoral thesis in 2013 at the Princeton University.
After that, he worked at Massachusetts Institute
of Technology and was appointed by Connecticut University as the assistant
professor, lecturer of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and the Faculty of
Biomedical Engineering.
Thanh is leading a research group in biomedical
technology and biomedical materials at the university. The team conducts
multidisciplinary research, focusing on medical applications, related to a wide
range of fields including biomaterials, pharmaceuticals, vaccines,
nanotechnology, regenerative medicine and engineering, and medical electronics.
Thanh has received a number of prestigious awards,
including the National Institutes of Health’s Trailblazer Award for Young and
Early Investigator in 2017, 2018 SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer
Award, top 10 inventors under 35 years old in the Asia-Pacific region voted by
MIT, top 10 exemplary young Vietnamese faces in 2019./.
Source: VietnamPlus
