A team of researchers from Swiss University, EPFL, and the Swiss federal materials-science center, Empa, have come up with a biomass-based material that they claim can be used to create “completely transparent surgical masks”. They have also registered a startup to called HMCARE to market the new product. On Wednesday, the company announced that it has raised CHF 1 million (~$1.05 million) to develop the industrial process.
In a blog post on Tuesday, the university said that the idea about a transparent mask came to Klaus Schönenberger, the head of EPFL’s EssentialTech Center, when he was working in western Africa during the 2015 Ebola outbreak. “It was touching to see that nurses – covered from head to toe in protective gear – pinned photos of themselves on their chests so that patients could see their faces”, he says.
Featured Image Courtesy: EPFL
