PMID- 36531632
OWN - NLM
STAT- PubMed-not-MEDLINE
LR  - 20221227
IS  - 2405-8440 (Print)
IS  - 2405-8440 (Electronic)
IS  - 2405-8440 (Linking)
VI  - 8
IP  - 12
DP  - 2022 Dec
TI  - Covid-19 waste facemask conundrum: A facile way of utilization through 
      fabricating composite material with unsaturated polyester resin and evaluation of 
      its mechanical properties.
PG  - e12197
LID - 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e12197 [doi]
LID - e12197
AB  - Since the outbreak of novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the use of personal 
      protective equipment (PPE) has increased profusely. Among all the PPEs, face 
      masks are the most picked ones by the mass people for protective purpose. This 
      spawned extensive daily use of face masks and production of masks had to augment 
      to keep up this booming demand. Such extensive use of face masks has resulted in 
      a huge waste generation. Lack of proper disposal, waste management and waste 
      recycling have already led this waste to pervade in the environment. In quest of 
      finding a solution, here in this research, a composite material was fabricated 
      utilizing waste face mask (WFM) with unsaturated polyester resin (UPR) and the 
      mechanical properties were evaluated. The composites were fabricated by 
      incorporating 1%, 2%, 3%, 4% and 5% WFM (by weight) within the UPR matrix in the 
      shredded form following hand lay-up technique. Tensile properties, i.e., tensile 
      strength (TS), tensile modulus (TM) and percentage elongation at break (% EB) as 
      well as flexural properties, i.e., bending strength (BS) and bending modulus (BM) 
      were evaluated for the fabricated composites. According to the results obtained, 
      the 2% WFM loaded composites showed highest values of TS, TM, BS and BM which are 
      31.61 N/mm(2), 1551.41 N/mm(2), 66.53 N/mm(2) and 4632.71 N/mm(2) respectively. 
      These values of 2% WFM loaded composite are 69.58%, 107.78%, 129.49% and 152% 
      higher than the values of the control sample (UPR). Such results depict the 
      successfulness of WFM's incorporation as a reinforcing material in the composite 
      materials. Attenuated Total Reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy 
      (ATR-FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), water uptake and thickness 
      swelling tests were also carried out for the fabricated composites. FTIR of the 
      collected WFM revealed the fiber to be of polypropylene and the existing 
      functional groups were also identified. The SEM images confirmed the proper 
      adhesion of WFM and UPR in terms of mechanical bonding rather than chemical 
      bonding. Water absorption and dimension change was investigated by water uptake 
      and thickness swelling test. To sum up, the way we have utilized WFM as a 
      reinforcing agent in a composite material, this could be a possible solution for 
      the face mask's waste conundrum.
CI  - (c) 2022 The Author(s).
FAU - Bin Mobarak, Mashrafi
AU  - Bin Mobarak M
AD  - Institute of Glass & Ceramic Research and Testing (IGCRT), Bangladesh Council of 
      Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR), Dhaka 1205, Bangladesh.
FAU - Hossain, Md Sahadat
AU  - Hossain MS
AD  - Institute of Glass & Ceramic Research and Testing (IGCRT), Bangladesh Council of 
      Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR), Dhaka 1205, Bangladesh.
FAU - Chowdhury, Fariha
AU  - Chowdhury F
AD  - Biomedical and Toxicological Research Institute (BTRI), Bangladesh Council of 
      Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR), Dhaka 1205, Bangladesh.
FAU - Ahmed, Samina
AU  - Ahmed S
AD  - Institute of Glass & Ceramic Research and Testing (IGCRT), Bangladesh Council of 
      Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR), Dhaka 1205, Bangladesh.
AD  - BCSIR Laboratories Dhaka, Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial 
      Research (BCSIR), Dhaka 1205, Bangladesh.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20221210
PL  - England
TA  - Heliyon
JT  - Heliyon
JID - 101672560
PMC - PMC9737522
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - COVID-19 pandemic
OT  - Composite material
OT  - Face mask waste
OT  - Hand lay-up technique
OT  - Mechanical properties
COIS- The authors declare no competing interests.
EDAT- 2022/12/20 06:00
MHDA- 2022/12/20 06:01
PMCR- 2022/12/10
CRDT- 2022/12/19 03:56
PHST- 2022/07/04 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2022/09/11 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2022/11/30 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2022/12/19 03:56 [entrez]
PHST- 2022/12/20 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2022/12/20 06:01 [medline]
PHST- 2022/12/10 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - S2405-8440(22)03485-5 [pii]
AID - e12197 [pii]
AID - 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e12197 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Heliyon. 2022 Dec;8(12):e12197. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e12197. Epub 2022 Dec 
      10.