Koniorczyk Marcin, Bednarska Dalia, Masek Anna, Cichosz Stefan
Lodz University of Technology, Department of Building Materials Physics and Sustainable Design, 90-537 Lodz, Al. Politechniki 6, Poland.
Lodz University of Technology, Institute of Polymer and Dye Technology, 90-537 Lodz, Stefanowskiego 16, Poland.
Constr Build Mater. 2022 Mar 21;324:126712. doi: 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2022.126712. Epub 2022 Feb 3.
After the coronavirus outbreak, a tremendous amount of personal protective equipment has been produced and used by the health service and every human. Proper medical waste management becomes an important problem, which must be solved with a minimal environmental impact. The presented manuscript introduces the recycling process, during which personal protection masks are transformed into polypropylene fibers being an addition to a concrete mixture. The designed recycling procedure provides the entire disinfection of probably contaminated medical wastes, is straightforward, and potentially enables one to modify the properties of the final product. The applied dosage referred to 1 mask per 1 L of concrete. The final product of face masks processing was studied using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, surface free energy, contact angle measurements, and melt flow index. The analysis indicated that polypropylene is its main component. Two concrete mixtures were composed, i.e., with the addition of processed masks and the reference one. The following properties were determined to compare the modified concrete with the reference one: compressive and tensile strength, frost resistance, water transport properties, resistance to high temperature. The obtained results indicated that the addition of processed masks slightly increased the compressive strength (by about 5%) and decreased the tensile strength (by about 3%). Simultaneously, it was reported that the addition did not affect material properties related to concrete durability as frost resistance, water permeability, and fire performance. The results evinced, that the addition of processed facemasks into concrete did not deteriorate its properties. Therefore, it is a possible way of the protective masks processing and reusing with the high recycling capacity. Further study should be conducted to optimize the dosing and to modify the properties of PP strings to improve hardened concrete properties.
冠状病毒爆发后，医疗服务机构和每个人都生产并使用了大量个人防护装备。妥善的医疗废物管理成为一个重要问题，必须以对环境影响最小的方式加以解决。本文介绍了回收过程，在此过程中，个人防护口罩被转化为聚丙烯纤维，作为混凝土混合物的添加剂。所设计的回收程序能对可能受污染的医疗废物进行全面消毒，操作简单，还可能使人们改变最终产品的性能。所使用的剂量为每1升混凝土添加1个口罩。使用傅里叶变换红外光谱、热重分析、表面自由能、接触角测量和熔体流动指数对口罩加工的最终产品进行了研究。分析表明聚丙烯是其主要成分。配制了两种混凝土混合物，即添加了加工后口罩的混合物和参考混合物。测定了以下性能以比较改性混凝土和参考混凝土：抗压强度、抗拉强度、抗冻性、输水性能、耐高温性。所得结果表明，添加加工后的口罩略微提高了抗压强度（约5%），降低了抗拉强度（约3%）。同时，据报道，这种添加不会影响与混凝土耐久性相关的材料性能，如抗冻性、透水性和防火性能。结果表明，在混凝土中添加加工后的口罩不会使其性能变差。因此，这是一种具有高回收能力的防护口罩加工和再利用的可能方式。应进一步开展研究以优化剂量，并改变聚丙烯纤维束的性能以改善硬化混凝土的性能。
