A more eco-friendly facial sheet mask that moisturizes, even though it’s packaged dry
Starting a new year, many people pledge to enact self-care routines that improve their appearance. And facial sheet masks soaked in skin care ingredients provide an easy way to do this. However, these wet masks and their waterproof packaging often contain plastics and preservatives. Now, a study in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces reports a dry-packaged hydrating facial mask that is made of biobased and sustainable materials.
Consumers in the beauty industry are increasingly concerned about the sustainability and sourcing of personal care items, in terms of both products’ ingredients and packaging. Facial sheet masks are popular cosmetic products advertised to benefit and enhance the skin. But they are typically made with plastic backing fabrics and are packaged with wet ingredients, requiring preservatives and disposable water-tight pouches. A more environmentally friendly option would be to package the facial masks dry. So, Jinlain Hu and coworkers aimed to design a facial sheet mask with biobased materials that could be enveloped in paper and later activated to deliver moisture and nutrients.
The researchers developed a facial mask with a sheet of plant-based polylactic acid (PLA), which could repel water, and they coated it in a layer of gelatin mixed with hyaluronic acid and green tea extract. They deposited the top layer as either tiny fibers or microspheres, using electrospinning or electrospray, respectively, and tested how well the masks could transfer moisture. They found:
- Water droplets did not pass through the masks without skin contact, regardless of which side a water droplet was placed on.
- Contact with skin initiated one-way water transport from PLA to gelatin to skin, but only for masks coated with gelatin-based microspheres.
- Placing the mask on moistened, rather than dry, skin improved water delivery through the mask.
Finally, the team investigated how its mask’s ingredients impacted mouse cells as a proxy for reactions on skin. Fewer cells showed signals of aging when grown on the mask compared with cells grown in control conditions; the researchers attribute this to the antioxidant properties of the green tea extracts. The team says the beneficial properties of the natural ingredients and the one-way moisture-delivery design make this mask a promising alternative with a lesser environmental impact compared to traditional, wet-packed products.
The authors acknowledge funding from the City University of Hong Kong, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Macau Science & Technology Fund.
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JOURNAL
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
ARTICLE TITLE
Electrosprayed Environment-Friendly Dry Triode-Like Facial Masks for Skincare
Lithuanian researchers recycle surgical masks for hydrogen-rich gas production
Lithuanian researchers investigate the possibilities of plasma gasification as an eco-friendly technique to convert used surgical masks into clean energy.
Peer-Reviewed PublicationIMAGE:
SAMY YOUSEF, A CHIEF RESEARCHER AT KTU FACULTY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING AND DESIGN
view moreCREDIT: KTU
During the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of tons of used surgical masks were dumped every month without a real vision to manage them. Although the world has successfully passed the critical period, a serious industrial eco-solution must be developed to deal with this waste.
Researchers from Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) and Lithuanian Energy Institute, aiming to design a solution for surgical mask waste management are investigating the possibilities of plasma gasification as an eco-friendly technique to convert surgical mask waste into clean energy products.
After conducting a series of experiments, they obtained synthetic gas (aka syngas) with a high abundance of hydrogen.
“There are two ways of converting waste to energy – by transforming solid waste into liquid product, or gases. Gasification allows converting huge amounts of waste to syngas, which is similar to natural and is a composition of several gases (such as hydrogen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and methane). During our experiments, we played with the composition of this synthetic gas and increased its concentration of hydrogen, and, in turn, its heating value,” says Samy Yousef, a chief researcher at Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania.
For the conversion of surgical masks, the researchers applied plasma gasification on defective FFP2 face masks, which were shredded beforehand into a uniform particle size, and then converted to granules that could be easily controlled during treatment.
The highest yield of hydrogen was obtained at an S/C (steam-to-carbon ratio) of 1.45. Overall, the obtained syngas showed a 42% higher heating value than that produced from biomass.
Traditional waste management technique was improved
Yousef’s research team, composed of scientists from two Lithuanian research institutions, KTU and Lithuanian Energy Institute, are working on the topics of recycling and waste management, and are always looking for waste, which is present in huge amounts and has a unique structure. In their work, they have conducted pyrolysis experiments on cigarette butts, used wind turbine blades, and textile waste, which have all shown promising results for upscaling and commercialization. Yet, this time, for the recycling of surgical masks, a different method was applied.
“Gasification is a traditional waste management technique. Differently from pyrolysis, which is still a new and developing method we don’t need much investment in developing infrastructure. Arc plasma gasification, which we have applied for the decomposition of surgical masks, means that under high temperatures generated by arc plasma, we can decompose face masks to gas within a few seconds. In pyrolysis, it takes up to an hour to get the final product. In advanced gasification, the process is almost instantaneous,” explains Yousef.
He says that advanced gasification techniques, such as plasma gasification, are more efficient in obtaining a better concentration of hydrogen (up to 50%) within synthetic gas production. Moreover, plasma gasification decreases the amount of tar in the syngas, which makes its quality higher.
Hydrogen-rich gas has better heating values
According to Yousef, plasma gasification is one of the best methods to obtain synthetic gas, which is rich in hydrogen.
“Hydrogen increases the heating value of the synthetic gas,” explains Yousef and continues describing the different types of hydrogen: grey is obtained from natural gas or methane, green – from green sources (e.g., electrolysis), blue – from steam reforming.
“Maybe we could call our black hydrogen, as it’s made from waste?” he says half-jokingly.
The yield of syngas was around 95% of the total amount of feedstock. The remaining products were soot and tar. The analysis revealed that benzene, toluene, naphthalene and acenaphthylene were the main compounds in collected tar. According to the researchers, it can be used as a clean fuel in different industries with low carbon emissions.
The soot was formulated in the last stage of plasma gasification. Its main component is black carbon, which can have numerous applications related to energy, wastewater treatment, and agriculture, or can be used as a filler material in composites.
The researchers believe that their proposed method for surgical mask waste recycling has a high potential to be commercialized. According to Yousef, a researcher from KTU, their main aim was to obtain synthetic gas, which is rich in hydrogen. Although hydrogen can be separated from the obtained syngas, it can also be used as a mixture of gases. As such, it already has half a higher heating value than that produced from biomass.
JOURNAL
International Journal of Hydrogen Energy
METHOD OF RESEARCH
Experimental study
SUBJECT OF RESEARCH
Not applicable
ARTICLE TITLE
Plasma steam gasification of surgical mask waste for hydrogen-rich syngas production
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