Recent crisis in the form of COVID-19 has rendered wearing of mask mandatory for patients, health care workers and members of public worldwide This has caused a sudden shift of focus on availability, effectiveness, re-use and development of face masks/respirators In the current pandemic situation, the shortage of masks has also led to rethinking on strategies of reuse of masks after due sterilization This work discusses a quick laboratory methodology to test/determine the particle filtration efficiency of face masks/respirators The testing parameters include the particle capture efficiency of the mask material/full mask, pressure drop and the fit factor Two different, simple, make-shift set-ups have been adopted for the present context The first is used to measure the intrinsic particle capture efficiency and pressure drop of the filter material and the second as a ‘full mask sampler’ to assess the leakages through seams and joints of the mask Experiments conducted with atomized NaCl test particles on three types of mask viz commercial N-95 respirator, surgical mask and cloth mask have been used for evolving the methodology The differences in terms of capture efficiency of aerosol particles for the filter material and for the full mask in face fix/sealed fixture have been linked to improvement of the mask design in development phase This paper hopes to provide a crucial laboratory link between the mask developers and the certification agencies in the times of urgency Needless to mention that commercialization of the same is subject to certification from authorized agencies, following standard procedures © The Author(s) 2020

中文翻译：

---

在 COVID-19 大流行之后确定面罩/呼吸器颗粒过滤效率的快速实验室方法

最近以 COVID-19 形式出现的危机使得全世界的患者、医护人员和公众都必须佩戴口罩，这导致对口罩/呼吸器的可用性、有效性、重复使用和开发的关注突然转变。在当前的大流行情况下，口罩短缺也导致重新思考适当消毒后口罩再利用的策略 这项工作讨论了一种快速的实验室方法来测试/确定口罩/呼吸器的颗粒过滤效率 测试参数包括颗粒捕获面罩材料/全面罩的效率，压降和贴合系数 两种不同的，简单的，在当前情况下采用了临时设置 第一个用于测量过滤材料的固有颗粒捕获效率和压降，第二个用作“全面罩采样器”以评估通过接缝和接头的泄漏面罩 在三种类型的面罩（即商用 N-95 呼吸器）上使用雾化 NaCl 测试颗粒进行的实验，外科口罩和布口罩已被用于改进方法 过滤材料和面部固定/密封固定装置中的全面罩的气溶胶颗粒捕获效率的差异与开发阶段口罩设计的改进有关 这论文希望在紧急情况下提供口罩开发商和认证机构之间的关键实验室联系，不用说，同样的商业化需要按照标准程序获得授权机构的认证 © The Author(s) 2020