Making Masks Active with Soap to Protect Against Coronavirus

Soap has emerged as one of the most effective weapons to combat coronavirus – it’s why washing hands thoroughly has become even more important during the pandemic. Texas Engineering researchers are teaming up with a group from the University of Florida to infuse chemicals in soap into face masks, enhancing their ability to protect people from SARS-CoV-2 and the COVID-19 disease it causes.

Led by Navid Saleh, an associate professor in the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, the research team from the two universities landed a $197,000 grant from the National Science Foundation’s Rapid Response Research program to pursue the project. The goal is to make face masks active by infusing soap molecules and other materials into the passive mask surfaces. This phased project will begin with a do-it-yourself kit for health care workers and others to add a soap solution to strengthen masks’ defenses against coronavirus.

The “surfactant” chemicals in soap bind with the virus and essentially take it apart. The experiment involves testing several different treatments on masks and measuring how well the chemicals deactivate the virus. The key is to choose the surfactants with the right properties to attach to mask surfaces, stay there during reuse and render the function of virus inactivation. The active masks will be tested for a range of respiratory viruses, in addition to SARS-CoV-2 strains.