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Comment by a-wu | Hacker News Reader

There's been a lot of press about people making their own face masks out of fabric and it got me thinking about copper-impregnated fabric (if you watch enough late-night TV you'll have seen those CopperFit infomercials). Copper itself has antimicrobial properties (studies say SARS-CoV-2 only lives 4 hours on copper), but does anyone know if there is enough copper content in those fabrics to make them a better fabric for face masks than cotton?

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>Copper itself has antimicrobial properties (studies say SARS-CoV-2 only lives 4 hours on copper), but does anyone know if there is enough copper content in those fabrics to make them a better fabric for face masks than cotton?

I think you answered your own question. Viruses only get killed if they're on copper for 4 hours, so it might be useful if you wanted a self-disinfecting mask, but if the material itself doesn't filter properly the antimicrobial properties of copper doesn't matter because the viruses fly straight through and aren't affected by the copper.

Right. I should've phrased the question as: is the copper content sufficiently high enough to make a significant impact on the disinfection rate compared to just say, cotton? Obviously it won't make a difference (I think?) during wear, but if it the virus dies quicker than on cotton then one could potentially disinfect the mask less frequently.

I personally wouldn't. Fabric sheds, having tiny microparticles of copper lodged in your lungs is probably not advisable.

I think it's better to just wash them in soap and water when you get home. A good soap will kill the heck out of viruses.

Or spray with bleach

What if you dip in isopropyl alcohol then dry, sounds safer than bleach and less destructive for the fabric. Bleach is chlorine you would have to wash it afterwards.

Alcohol will destroy the charges that make the fabric effective for small particle sizes, according to the article.

that is the N95 masks made of blown polypropylene, not cloth masks made at home (for example two layers of teatowel is quite an effective filter apparently)

I think he is asking if it might improve the performance overall, not necessarily about sterilization. There has been some talk of using salt, for example: https://www.businessinsider.com/mask-coated-in-salt-neutrali...

Thanks, that was pretty informative. We have a bunch of one time use standard surgical masks at home. I wonder if I can just put them in a bag of salt after single use.

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