Virus blocking textile for SARS-CoV-2 using human body triboelectric energy harvesting

Effective mitigation technology to prevent the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is required before achieving population immunity through vaccines. Here we demonstrate a virus-blocking textile (VBT) that repulses SARS-CoV-2 by applying repulsive Coulomb force to respiratory particles, powered by human body triboelectric energy harvesting. We show that SARS-CoV-2 has negative charges, and a human body generates high output current of which peak-to-peak value reaches 259.6 μA at most, based on triboelectric effect. Thereby, the human body can sustainably power a VBT to have negative electrical potential, and the VBT highly blocks SARS-CoV-2 by repulsion. In an acrylic chamber study, we found that the VBT blocks SARS-CoV-2 by 99.95%, and SARS-CoV-2 in the VBT is 13-fold reduced. Our work provides technology that may prevent the spread of virus based on repulsive Coulomb force and triboelectric energy harvesting. [Display omitted] •Negative charge of SARS-CoV-2 is validated•A virus blocking textile (VBT) blocks SARS-CoV-2 using repulsive Coulomb force•The VBT is sustainably powered by a human body based on triboelectric effect•The VBT blocks SARS-CoV-2 by 99.95% at the flow rate of 0.5 m/s Effective mitigation technology to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2 is required before achieving population immunity through vaccines. Kang et al. propose a virus-blocking textile that blocks SARS-CoV-2 by 99.95% by applying repulsive Coulomb force to respiratory particles, based on sustainable powering by the human body’s triboelectric energy harvesting.