Iranian Company Develops Nanofiber Masks

An Iranian company has developed a homegrown technology to produce a special fabric with nanocoating to manufacture N95 and N99 masks and fulfill the growing need for face masks amid the outbreak of coronavirus.

In an interview with IRIB at the mask-producing factory, Head of the Iran Nanotechnology Initiative Council (INIC) Saeed Sarkar said the local experts have manage to produce medical masks with nanomaterial by making modifications to the production process.

“After the outbreak of this crisis, the colleagues could fortunately adapt the same machinery to be able to produce nano-masks out of the ordinary material or fabric for production of normal masks,” he noted.

Sarkar noted that the new material has extreme filtration power and perfect breathability.

The N95 masks made out of the homegrown nanofabrics are being delivered to the medical staff at the hospitals across the country.

“This type of filtration papers, namely N95 and N99, were being mostly imported, and in the current circumstance, even if we were not faced with sanctions, these products would not be available to us. But, fortunately, by using the domestically-made filtration papers and coating them with nanofibers, we are turning them into a filtration paper that is suitable for the N95 and N99 masks,” an official at the factory said.

Apart from Iran, only one other country in the world has reportedly gained the technology to produce fabrics with nanocoating suitable for the medical masks.