An Innovative Approach for the Fabrication of Functional Antibacterial Membranes for Face Mask

ABSTRACT Number of studies on the hydrophobic and antibacterial membranes has shown significant growth recently, particularly in masks created in response to the coronavirus pandemic. In this study, the supercritical CO 2 (scCO 2 ) annealing, a promising green alternative post‐processing method to traditional solvents for polymers, polymer blends, and composites, has been focused. And polymeric membranes were also improved with silver (inorganic) or limestone (organic) particles as antibacterial additives to the polypropylene/polyethylene glycol (PP/PEG) blend. The effect on the structure and properties of the synthesized membranes were examined including the antibacterial and topographical properties before and after CO 2 annealing. With increasing contact angle by scCO 2 annealing, it was possible to create superhydrophobic surfaces and antibacterial properties against Escherichia coli ( E. coli ), especially for silver‐loaded PP–PEG membranes based on the collected results. This study is thought to boost the effectiveness of masks against bacteria, the main causes of today's hygiene related epidemics. Finally, scCO 2 can be safely applied in mask and membrane production as well as biomedical applications.