UNAIR NEWS 鈥聽Masks are now primary items that every individual must-have today.听Mandatory use when leaving the house causes mask waste, especially disposable masks, to rise significantly.
As a response, an (UNAIR) Student Creativity Program (PKM-K) team led by Alfionita Isnaini has made a breakthrough called聽MASNANO.听Together with her colleagues, Via Qurrota A鈥檡un, Tarissa Sekar Ayunda, Arina Inas Maheswari, and Salsabilla Pangesti, Alfionita created a product in the form of a cloth mask with a nanofiber filter derived from coconut fiber cellulose.听The product passed the funding selection for the Student Entrepreneurship Creativity Program (PKM-K) of the Indonesian Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology in 2021.
鈥淚nitially, our innovation was inspired by the scarcity of masks at the beginning of last year.听Plus, there is an appeal for聽double masking聽to increase the efficacy of mask filtration,鈥 explained Fio to UNAIRNEWS聽team on聽Tuesday, August 12, 2021.
She added that the product development supervised by Rr.听Retno Widyowati, SSi., MPharm., PhD., Apt, helped the community get better filtration efficacy than ordinary cloth masks.听By wearing聽MASNANO,聽individuals do not need to use two masks simultaneously because the nanofiber filter on聽MASNANO can filter nanoparticles, including bacteria and viruses.
Furthermore, she explained that 聽MASNANO聽uses coconut fiber because there is a lot of waste from coconut fiber in the market, and it is not processed.听Moreover, coconut fiber contains cellulose which is useful for filtering nanoparticles.
鈥淐oconut fiber that has been cleaned, dried, then crushed using a blender and crusher in the Pharmacy lab. Then, the crushed coconut fibers will be made into filter sheets,鈥 she explained.
In producing聽MASNANO, UNAIR Faculty of Pharmacy (FF) students had several obstacles.听The production of filters in Surabaya, precisely in the FF laboratory, has been limited by PPKM (mobility restrictions) because some members are from outside Surabaya.听However, Fio admitted that it did not stop their production.听Members in Surabaya are in charge of completing filters, while other members take care of other things.
Tarissa, one of the members, added that they had difficulty finding tailors.听She admitted that the search for tailors took a lot of time because many could not follow聽惭础厂狈础狈翱鈥檚聽unique designs.听
MASNANO聽has three models of cloth masks.听They provide two different packages, a complete package consisting of a mask and a filter, and a low-cost package with only the filter.听MASNANO is聽priced at IDR聽30,000 鈥 IDR 90,000.听The team is opening its first order window until Friday, August 13, 2021, on https://desty.page/masnanoid.
鈥淲e hope that聽MASNANO聽can help reduce the spread of COVID-19 because it uses a nanofiber filter.听Don鈥檛 forget to buy聽MASNANO聽and visit our social media,鈥 concluded Tarissa.听(*)
Author: Alysa Intan Santika
Editor: Nuri Hermawan
