Figure 2 | Scientific Reports

Figure 2

From: Unfolding the effects of decontamination treatments on the structural and functional integrity of N95 respirators via numerical simulations

Figure 2

Comparison of (a) filtration efficiency of N95 respirators after various decontamination treatments. ‘Experimental’ refers to the experimentally obtained filtration efficiency of the control and decontaminated N95 respirators obtained from Ref. 38. The filtration performance after five cycles of soap treatment could not be determined experimentally due to a very high pressure drop. Analysis of individual layers of the N95 respirator revealed that the high-pressure drop was likely due to the entrapment of soap particles in the meltblown layers. (b) Comparison of the permeability of the nonwoven layers of N95 respirators before and after decontamination treatments. (c) Comparison of the depth of particle penetration into the nonwoven layers of N95 respirators before and after decontamination treatments.

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