Using materials to help fight the epidemic, Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory launched emergency scientific research

Not long ago, the new fiber team led by Professor Yu Jie from the Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory (hereinafter referred to as "Materials Laboratory") overcome a number of technical problems and successfully developed a new type of high-performance mask filter material to solve the bottleneck restricting the increase in mask production capacity The problem provides a new way. In the face of the spread of the epidemic, under the premise of ensuring scientific epidemic prevention and orderly resumption of work, the materials laboratory has given full play to its technical and talent advantages, urgently launched a number of epidemic prevention-related projects to carry out scientific research, and played an important role in scientific research in anti-epidemic through various methods. Efforts should be made to ensure that both epidemic prevention and scientific research are done.

Innovative ideas to solve problems: successfully developed a new high-performance mask filter material

"We have more than 15 years of research foundation for preparing nanofibers by electrospinning, and there is still a lot of relevant accumulation, but when we really started to do this, we found many difficulties." On March 20, Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory Professor Yu Jie, the leader of the fiber team exclaimed. Just the day before, he led the team to overcome a series of technical problems and successfully developed a new type of high-performance mask filter material, which is expected to replace the traditional melt blown cloth, which has received widespread attention.

Affected by the epidemic, the supply of domestic masks has been suddenly tight since late January, and for a time there was a situation of "hard to find a mask". Many manufacturers have urgently increased and switched production, and the production capacity of masks has increased rapidly. However, limited by the supply of raw materials, the actual output increase was once limited, and the key material was melt blown cloth.

Yu Jie introduced that because the pore size of the meltblown cloth itself is still large, it needs to undergo electrostatic treatment to improve the particle filtering ability through electrostatic adsorption. However, this in turn leads to the gradual failure of water vapor. "This is why it is recommended to wear it every 4 hours. The reason why the mask must be replaced".

Based on years of research experience, he realized that nanofibers can avoid these problems. The diameter of the nanofiber itself is only between 200 nanometers and 500 nanometers, which is an order of magnitude thinner than melt blown cloth materials. "For example, in the past, one fiber can be placed in a place where one hundred fibers can be placed. The pore size is smaller. The particles are blocked by layers and the filtering effect is better." Yu Jie said, because it is a pure physical barrier, the nanofiber filter material is more effective. Stable and not easy to decay, it can be used repeatedly.

The theory makes sense, but the actual development has encountered problems. "When I actually did it, I found that there was no systematic research in this field in the past. What kind of polymer material was used? How to do waterproofing? What is the relationship between life and material selection and structure? These are not available in the literature, and there are no ready-made cases to refer to. Keep trial and error, keep exploring." Yu Jie said.

Subsequently, he and his team members began to soak in the laboratory every day, staying up late and working overtime became the norm, and successively overcame many difficulties such as materials and trial production. It took less than two weeks to successfully prepare nanofiber filter materials that meet the application requirements. Tested by the third-party authoritative organization Guangzhou Inspection, Testing and Certification Group Co., Ltd. (national certification), the filtration index meets the KN95 national standard for masks.

After the successful development, the entire team did not breathe a sigh of relief. Within a few days, it has continuously improved several versions and accelerated the industrial transformation of the results. "I think this is a good start. Nanofibers are likely to be the direction of the next generation of masks. If they can be applied as soon as possible, it will be a good thing for the country and society." Yu Jie said.

[News source] Nanfang Daily

[Reporter] Chen Qiliang

[Source] Songshan Lake Maerial Laboratory