Face masks help limit the spread of
COVID-19 and are currently
recommended by governments worldwide.
Now, engineers at Indiana University demonstrate for the first time that a fabric generating a weak electric field can
inactivate coronaviruses. The
electroceutical fabric, described in a
ChemRxiv preprint that has not yet been peer-reviewed, could be used to make face masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE), the authors say.
The fabric was tested against a pig respiratory coronavirus and a human coronavirus that causes the common cold. It has not yet been tested against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
“The work is of interest for the scientific community; it will open new [areas to] search to provide smart solutions to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic,” says
Mahmoud Al Ahmad, an associate professor of engineering at the University of United Arab Emirates, who was not involved in the research. While the concept will require more development before being applied to PPE, he says, “it is an excellent start in this direction.”
Beyond masks, the findings raise the possibility of using weak electrical fields to
curb the spread of viruses in many ways, such as purifying air in
common spaces or disinfecting operating room surfaces, says study author
Chandan Sen, director of the
Indiana Center for Regenerative Medicine and Engineering at Indiana University School of Medicine. “Coronavirus is not the first or last virus that is going to disrupt our lives,” he says. “We’re thinking about bigger and broader approaches to utilize weak electric fields against virus infectivity.”
Sen’s lab has been co-developing the electroceutical fabric technology, under the proprietary name
V.Dox Technology, with Arizona-based company Vomaris for the past six years. Sen retains a financial stake in the company.
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