JPH0418585Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] (Field of industrial application) This invention is used to treat colds, rhinitis, asthma, etc. caused by substances such as viruses, bacteria, pollen, house dust, and soot floating in the air. Concerning masks that protect the human body from diseases.

(Prior art) In recent years, people have become increasingly nervous about environmental hygiene, public health issues, and pollution problems, and the living environment has been significantly improved with air-conditioned vehicles and living spaces, and the human body itself is in a state of excessive protection. The actual situation is that Therefore, it cannot be denied that the human body's resistance to stimuli and pathogens is becoming weaker.

Cold viruses that are transmitted through the air have become more resistant to drugs, making it more difficult to cure once infected, but recently rhinitis caused by pollen has become more common due to soot, soot, and grass. The fact that diseases caused by substances floating in the air, such as asthma, are becoming prevalent, it is clear that the weakening of the human body is also a contributing factor.

In this contemporary background, protecting the body from harmful substances floating in the air is an important measure, and it is predicted that improvements in this direction will be increasingly demanded in the future.

(Problem to be solved by the invention) However, conventionally used masks made of non-ionic fibers or non-ionic fibers and activated carbon do not remove harmful particles floating in the air, especially ultra-fine particles. It has poor performance and cannot be fully effective. If the mesh is made fine in order to improve removability, the pressure drop will increase, making it impossible to use it as a mask.

This invention provides a low pressure drop mask that protects the human body from harmful substances, mainly particles such as viruses, bacteria, pollen, house dust, and soot, floating in the air. Even if you suffer from rhinitis or asthma, it will not spread the disease and will speed up your healing process.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention has the following configuration in order to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems. That is, (1) a mask characterized by having a filter containing ion exchange fibers as a constituent component; (2) a mask according to item (1) above, characterized in that the ion exchange fibers are cation exchange fibers; (3) The mask according to item (1) above, wherein the filter contains cation exchange fibers and anion exchange fibers.

The present invention will be explained in detail below.

The ion exchange fiber as used in the present invention means a known ion exchange fiber having a diameter of usually 0.1 to 100 μm, preferably 1 to 100 μm. Specific examples include base polymers such as polystyrene, polyvinyl alcohol, polyacrylic, polyamide, polyphenol, polyethylene, and cellulose, with cation exchange groups such as sulfonic acid groups, phosphonic acid groups, carboxylic acid groups, and anion exchange groups. Ion-exchange fibers have introduced groups such as primary to tertiary amino groups or quaternary ammonium groups, as well as various chelate groups such as aminocarboxylic acid groups, amidoxime groups, polyamine groups, and dithylcarbamate groups. However, the mask of the present invention is preferably a mask made of cation-exchange fibers, and particularly preferably one having sulfonic acid groups introduced therein.

Among the base polymers referred to in the present invention, poly(monovinyl aromatic compounds), particularly polystyrene polymers, are preferred because of their excellent chemical stability. Specific examples include polymers made of polystyrene, α-methylstyrene, vinyltoluene, vinylxylene, chloromethylstyrene, and the like.

The method for producing ion-exchange fibers by introducing ion-exchange groups into such a polymer may be a known method, such as the method described in JP-A-59-18731. For example, by heat-treating in the coexistence of paraformaldehyde and sulfuric acid, a cation exchange fiber into which sulfonic acid groups have been introduced can be obtained.

The amount of ion exchange group introduced into the polymer is at least 0.1 meq/g based on the dry weight of the polymer,
Preferably 0.5meq/g or more, more preferably
It is in the range of 1.0 to 10meq/g. The amount of such exchanged groups can be controlled by processing conditions, introduction process, etc. Furthermore, among ion-exchange fibers, fibers made of a base polymer and a reinforcing polymer, preferably multifilamentary mixed or composite fibers with the base polymer as the main component of the sheath component and the reinforcing polymer as the core component, are used as the base material. Ion exchange fibers are preferred because they have sufficient mechanical strength and shape retention. In particular, fibers made by further fibrillating ion-exchange fibers made of multicore composite fibers are easy to manufacture into various fiber structures such as paper-like materials, and in addition, they improve the ability to remove harmful substances from the air. Preferably selected.

Such ion exchange fibers have the characteristic of chemically adsorbing and/or deactivating harmful substances floating in the air. Its adsorption amount and/or
The ability to deactivate or deactivate substances varies depending on the frequency with which harmful substances come into contact with the fibers. Therefore, it is preferable that the fibers be present in large amounts as a filter component of the mask, at least 30% by weight, and even more. Preferably it is 50% by weight or more. The filter layer made of ion-exchange fibers may be made of only cation-exchange fibers, mixed with anion-exchange fibers, or further containing non-ionic ordinary fibers, and at least a portion of these constituent fibers may be made of cation-exchange fibers. It has a composition such as a composite of physical adsorbents such as powdered, granular and fibrous activated carbon.

It is preferable for the mask of this invention to have good breathability, but if it is too good, the frequency of contact with floating harmful substances will be too small, so the filter weight is 50g/
It is suitable that it is at least 100 g/m ² , more preferably at least 100 g/m ² .

The mask of the present invention will be explained with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an example of a typical mask of the present invention.
This mask is an example of a mask having a sandwich structure in which a filter layer 2 made of ion exchange fibers is reinforced from both sides with a fiber layer 1 made of nonionic fibers (FIG. 2: sectional view). FIG. 3 shows another embodiment of the present invention, which has a reinforcing fiber layer 3 made of nonionic fibers and activated carbon as the constituent components in place of the layer 1 made of nonionic fibers in FIGS. 1 and 2. It is.

The mask of the present invention exhibits characteristics that allow it to withstand long-term practical use, with excellent airborne substance collection efficiency and no troubles due to pressure loss.

In particular, as shown in FIG. 3, a mask having as a constituent component a fiber layer in which ion exchange fibers are further mixed or laminated with a physical adsorbent such as activated carbon provides a mask with even higher performance.

The form of the fiber layer constituting the mask of the present invention does not matter. For example, it may be in any form such as a paper-like material, a nonwoven fabric, a woven or knitted fabric, or a mixture thereof. Among such forms, as shown in Fig. 1, a mask in which a nonionic ordinary fiber layer and a cation exchange fiber filter layer are combined is used to collect physically adsorbed components and chemically adsorbed components. Therefore, it is preferable in terms of effectiveness and durability. In particular, by including (mixing, laminating) a physical adsorbent such as the activated carbon in the ion exchange fiber layer and/or the nonionic fiber layer, the above effects of the present invention are synergistically exhibited and the performance is further improved. Therefore, it is preferable.

(Example) Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in more detail with reference to Examples, but the present invention is not limited thereto.

Example 1 Multicore sea-island composite fiber (undrawn yarn) [sea component (polystyrene)/island component (polyethylene) = 50/50,
Multifilament with 16 islands, 34 μm fiber diameter, 42 fibers with total fineness of 340 denier)] is 5.
After cutting to cm, I made felt. 1g of this felt
The mixture was added to a crosslinking/sulfonation solution consisting of 22.5 parts by volume of concentrated sulfuric acid and 0.15 parts by weight of paraformaldehyde, and reacted at 85°C for 5 hours. After the reaction, the liquid was removed, washed with pure water, and dried. The obtained felt-like ion exchange fiber has a basis weight of 300 g/m ² and an exchange capacity of 3.1 meq/m2.
It was hot at g. By sandwiching this felt between two nylon knitted fabrics with a basis weight of 150 g/m ² in a sandwich pattern from both sides, the filter layer made of ion exchange fibers is reinforced on both sides with a fiber layer made of non-ion exchange fibers, resulting in a total basis weight of 600 g. / ^m2 mask was made. Next, a part of the mask was cut and the effective diameter was φ20.
It was attached to a mm holder. In addition, 5 m of phosphate buffer mixed with influenza virus [HA titer (hemagglutination ability) = 483] was placed in a container.
The container and the inlet of the holder were connected. Nitrogen gas is supplied to the container at 5/sec (ventilation speed of holder part
16 m/sec) and blew in. The outlet side of the holder was connected to another container containing phosphate buffer to collect the virus that passed through the mask. When the HA titer of the recovered virus was measured, it was extremely low at 2.

Comparative Example 1 In Example 1, a commercially available gauze mask (basis weight 760 g/
The test was conducted in the same manner except that a part of the sample (m ² ) was cut out and attached to a holder.

The HA value of the recovered virus was 276 (air resistance was almost the same as in Example 1). As is clear from the above results, the mask of the present invention has extremely high virus inactivation (capturing) ability compared to commercially available masks.

(Effects of the invention) The mask of this invention protects against colds, rhinitis, asthma, and other diseases that are caused by inhaling harmful substances, which are mainly drifting particles such as viruses, bacteria, pollen, house dust, and soot in the air. At the same time as protecting the human body, if worn on an infected patient,
It exhibits the characteristic of not spreading viruses and bacteria outside the body. Therefore, wearing the mask of the present invention in places where virus and bacteria carriers gather, such as hospitals, is extremely effective in preventing infection and spread. In addition, since the mask of this invention chemically adsorbs and/or loses the activity of harmful particles using ion-exchange fibers, it can be sufficiently effective even with low pressure drop (coarse mesh). It also has an extremely long service life.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the mask structure of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view thereof. FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing another mask structure of the present invention. In the figure, 1... A filter layer made of ion exchange fibers, 2... A reinforcing fiber layer made of nonionic fibers, 3... A reinforcing fiber layer made of nonionic fibers and activated carbon.

Claims (1)

[Claims for Utility Model Registration] (1) A mask characterized by having a filter containing ion exchange fiber as a constituent component. (2) The mask according to claim 1, wherein the ion exchange fiber is a cation exchange fiber. (3) The mask according to claim 1, wherein the filter contains cation exchange fibers and anion exchange fibers.