UNAIR NEWS – Masks are now primary items that every individual must-have today. Mandatory use when leaving the house causes mask waste, especially disposable masks, to rise significantly.
As a response, an Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) Student Creativity Program (PKM-K) team led by Alfionita Isnaini has made a breakthrough called MASNANO. Together with her colleagues, Via Qurrota A’yun, 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. 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.
“Initially, our innovation was inspired by the scarcity of masks at the beginning of last year. Plus, there is an appeal for double masking to increase the efficacy of mask filtration,” explained Fio to UNAIRNEWS team on Tuesday, August 12, 2021.
She added that the product development supervised by Rr. Retno Widyowati, SSi., MPharm., PhD., Apt, helped the community get better filtration efficacy than ordinary cloth masks. By wearing MASNANO, individuals do not need to use two masks simultaneously because the nanofiber filter on MASNANO can filter nanoparticles, including bacteria and viruses.
Furthermore, she explained that MASNANO uses coconut fiber because there is a lot of waste from coconut fiber in the market, and it is not processed. Moreover, coconut fiber contains cellulose which is useful for filtering nanoparticles.
“Coconut 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,” she explained.
In producing MASNANO, UNAIR Faculty of Pharmacy (FF) students had several obstacles. 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. However, Fio admitted that it did not stop their production. 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. She admitted that the search for tailors took a lot of time because many could not follow MASNANO’s unique designs.
MASNANO has three models of cloth masks. They provide two different packages, a complete package consisting of a mask and a filter, and a low-cost package with only the filter. MASNANO is priced at IDR 30,000 – IDR 90,000. The team is opening its first order window until Friday, August 13, 2021, on https://desty.page/masnanoid.
“We hope that MASNANO can help reduce the spread of COVID-19 because it uses a nanofiber filter. Don’t forget to buy MASNANO and visit our social media,” concluded Tarissa. (*)
Author: Alysa Intan Santika
Editor: Nuri Hermawan
