The human being is an expert in creating garbage, and in recent years there has been a new element that can already be seen everywhere, from forests to beaches, passing, logically, along the sidewalks of cities.
We are talking about used masks, those unpleasant fabrics full of particles that number in the billions around the world.
The good news is that recent research has shown that disposable face masks could relatively easily strengthen cement.
Cement is less prone to cracking when small reinforcing fibers are mixed into it before it is poured, and that is what has prompted scientists at Washington State University to begin studying the possibility that polypropylene or polyester fabric in Discarded face masks could be a source of those fibers.
The first thing they did was remove the metal nose bridges and cotton earmuffs, then they shredded the remaining fabric into fibers ranging from 5 to 30mm in length. The fibers were treated with a solution of graphene oxide, and a layer was formed on them, adding additional surface area before it was mixed with commonly used cement. They were added to that cement at 0.1 percent volume.
[…] The researchers developed a process to make tiny mask fibers, five to 30 millimeters in length, and then added them to cement to strengthen it and prevent it from cracking.
After a month they did studies to see the result, and it showed 47 percent more tensile strength than the untreated cement.
The addition of the fibers did, however, reduce the compressive strength, although it was only 3 percent.
An article on the research has already been published in the journal Materials Letters, let’s hope that now the industry, and the humanity behind it, will move so that everything is recycled correctly and put to the proper use.
