MIT researchers create reusable N95 face mask

Researchers have created a reusable face mask they believe could be as effective at stopping viral particles as the highly sought-after N95.

Researchers in the US have created a reusable face mask they believe could be as effective at stopping viral particles as the highly sought-after N95.

Supply of medical-grade face masks has been an ongoing issue throughout the coronavirus pandemic, with some health workers forced to wear the same single-use mask for days at a time due to shortages.

The iMASC, which stands for “Injection Molded Autoclavable, Scalable, Conformable”, designed by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is designed to be easily sterilised and used many times.

It uses the same polypropylene fibres as the N95 that are specially designed to filter out tiny viral particles, but in the form of two round, replaceable filters in the front of the silicone rubber mask, meaning it requires much less of the valuable material.

“With this design, the filters can be popped in and then thrown away after use, and you’re throwing away a lot less material than an N95 mask,” research engineer Adam Wentworth said in an MIT press release.

Mr Wentworth is one of the authors of a new paper describing the masks published in the British Medical Journal Open. For the study, 20 health professionals were recruited to test out the masks.

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The prototype mask uses disposable filters. Picture: MIT

It is designed to be sterilised and used many times. Picture: MIT

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The subjects were placed in a hood with an aerosolised sugary solution periodically sprayed inside, as they performed a range of exercises including normal breathing, deep breathing, turning the head side to side, moving the head up and down, counting backwards from 100, grimacing and bending over.

None of them reported they could taste the solution, indicating the masks worked.

Nearly all of the participants rated the breathability of the masks as either excellent or good, while 60 per cent said they would be willing to wear the iMASC instead of a surgical mask or N95 respirator.

“One of the key things we recognised early on was that in order to help meet the demand, we needed to really restrict ourselves to methods that could scale,” said Giovanni Traverso, an MIT assistant professor of mechanical engineering and the paper’s lead author.

“We also wanted to maximise the reusability of the system, and we wanted systems that could be sterilised in many different ways.”

The researchers tested a variety of sterilisation methods on the silicone rubber masks – the same material used in products like silicone baking sheets – including autoclaving, soaking in bleach solution and soaking isopropyl alcohol.

They are now working on a second version of the mask based on feedback from healthcare workers and are seeking a partner company to support scaled-up production.

Further testing and approvals from the Food and Drug Administration and the FDA and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health are required before the masks can be rolled out.

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