Hydrophobic Coating on Woven Material for Personal Protective Equipment

Abstract

The performance of personal protective equipment fabrics for COVID-19 health care practitioners was improved by polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) coating. The PVA enhances fabric’s resistance to body fluid penetration, on the other hand, also increases its hydrophilic properties. However, hydrophobic is required to prevent microdroplets and body fluid wetting on the fabrics. The hydrophobic effect was increased by immersed the fabrics in silica nanoparticles that resulted in a water contact angle of 133.41° ± 10.8°.