Virus Safe Textiles

Hydrus Purification Technologies are the team behind Hydrus-75, a sodium hypochlorite sanitiser used by the NHS as a surface disinfectant and in hygienic wipes. It delivers exceptional results at low concentration levels. Our novel coating for hard or flexible surfaces and textiles meets the urgent need for Personal Protective Equipment and clothing for clinical and medical settings. This project will demonstrate coated textiles and garments which are intrinsically safe and re-useable. They will also be capable of production in the UK, using readily available textile machinery and industrial or domestic sewing machines.

Much of the Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) currently used in clinical-medical environments is made from paper and plastic microfibres, blown or felted into tight meshes designed to block particles. Even the best FFP3 masks (costing <£4-each) do not block individual particles of viruses like Covid-19, they must be disposed of between patients and when moist (in FFP3 masks, about 2 hours).High tech fabric and graphene coatings are now coming to market, Graphene coated textiles can block virus particles and last longer, however production processes are costly and coatings degrade quickly. Even the best new masks can only be washed and safely re-used 3 to 6 times. Clearly the ideal for surgical clothing is a highly protective, safe, washable, re-useable solution which offers mask level protection, yet making gowns and surgical clothing with such textiles is currently prohibitively costly.Graphene coated textiles are extremely durable - earlier versions of our coating are found in expensive sportswear for extreme environments.

Our coating can block virus particles 10x smaller than the best existing PPE. By preventing liquid penetration to its base layer, our textile remains useable for longer periods during sessional-use. Between patients, masks using our textile can be sprayed with Hydrus75 (a highly effective, low cost disinfectant product we already supply to the NHS) for immediate re-use, or washed and dried for re-use later the same day. It can even be zapped with electricity to disinfect it. Our re-useable PPE also has a positive environmental impact, greatly reduce the quantities required, whilst at and relieving supply issues.; In China alone 192k-tonnes of used surgical masks are disposed of annually, from clinical settings alone. This toxic waste is either incinerated, or inappropriately landfilled.

-ADDITIONAL INFORMATION HERE-

During the project we identified an additional fabric worthy of note. Unlike the fabric used in scrubs, this fabric is knitted, making it softer, easier to wear, kinder on the ears and inherently safer for use by children. These properties and the fabrics 4 dimensional flexibility make it unsuitable for coating, and difficult to coat evenly during continuous dyeing processes. We conducted “dip dyeing” trials by hand, which works very well for small samples and could be viable for finished items, however it is not a long term solution.

We would like to conduct lab scale trials to evaluate additional methods such as spray coating the fabric and masks pre-manufactured with it. If spray application is successful for textiles, we should be able to coat touch points such as door handles, elevator buttons, cash point / EPOS buttons, etc, possibly without removing them first. Additional grant funding will allow us to purchase textiles, complete basic testing on textiles and other items and identify partners with whom we can develop a commercial solution.

Potential investors identified during the first stages of this project are keen to explore these applications and have offered to co-fund up to £25k to cover the costs of the additional independent trial testing required to certify projects developed during this additional scope extension. This opportunity comes with the opportunity to secure significant contracts (for millions of units) and offers the potential of our first licensing sales, to the US and Canadian territories.