Comparison of Physical Properties and Degradation of Polylactic Acid and Polypropylene Facemask Layer

The current 3-ply facemasks are produced mostly using polypropylene (PP) as the main plastic layer that is a non-biodegradable polymer. The objective of this study was to fabricate a polylactic acid (PLA) layer, a biodegradable polymer, using the electrospinning process. Comparison on the degradation trend of PLA layer and PP layer obtained from commercial 3-ply face mask (CFM) layer in seawater, river water, soil, and compost environment for a total of 60 days was observed. Results showed that the electrospinning method can produce PLA layers with similar thickness with current CFM layer, narrow distribution of fiber diameter, and slightly dense surface morphology comparable to the CFM. Synthesized PLA fiber layer shows 68.6%, 39.8%, and 415.7% improvement in tensile strength, Young's modulus, and elongation at break, respectively, compared to CFM samples. Meanwhile, for the degradation study, PLA samples show more significant changes on its morphology corresponding to the degradation process that occurred on its fibers in the seawater, river water, and soil environment, whereas for the weight change study, only the soil environment shows significant changes after 45 days. In contrast, CFM samples did not show any significant changes corresponding to degradation activity.

Automated summary

This study aims to fabricate a biodegradable polylactic acid (PLA) layer using the electrospinning process to replace the non-biodegradable polypropylene (PP) layer in 3-ply facemasks, making them more environmentally friendly. The results showed that the electrospinning method can produce PLA layers with similar thickness, narrow fiber diameter distribution, and slightly dense surface morphology compared to commercial facemasks. The synthesized PLA fiber layer exhibited significant improvements in tensile strength, Young's modulus, and elongation at break compared to the commercial samples. Additionally, the PLA samples showed significant degradation changes in seawater, river water, and soil environments, while only the soil environment exhibited significant weight changes after 45 days.