A novel carbon aerogel enabling respiratory monitoring for bio-facial masks

Abstract

Suffering from air pollution and respiratory chronic, people need air filters simultaneously capable of high-efficiency filtration and respiration monitoring. However, constructing desirable filters to realize effective and enduring capture of ultrafine particles as well as collecting real-time respiratory information, is still particularly challenging. Herein, we report an ultralight, super-elastic hard carbon aerogel (s-HCA) as the piezoresistive sensor for a respiratory monitoring facial mask made of s-HCA/zein nanofibrils. The s-HCA displays super-elasticity and excellent compressive strength at a low density, as well as outstanding piezoresistive detective sensitivity and range. The resulting facial mask displays excellent filtration performance including high particulate efficiency and ultralow airflow resistance, as well as good moisture transferability. More significantly, ability of simultaneously monitoring real-time respiratory process of filtration is incorporated into the facial mask. This study does not only lead to a novel carbon aerogel and broaden the application of carbon aerogels, but also provides a new strategy for design of multifunctional facial masks. It is particularly significant for more patients under the situation of lacking costly respirator equipment during the pandemic period.