ABSTRACT
With the prevalence of COVID-19, wearing medical surgical masks has become a requisite measure to protect against the invasion of the virus. Therefore, a huge amount of discarded medical surgical masks will be produced, which will become a potential hazard to pollute the environment and endanger the health of organisms without our awareness. Herein, a green and cost-effective way for the reasonable disposal of waste masks becomes necessary. In this work, we realized the transformation from waste medical surgical masks into high-quality carbon-nickel composite nanowires, which not only benefit the protection of the environment and ecosystem but also contribute to the realization of economic value. The obtained composite carbon-based materials demonstrate 70 S m-1conductivity, 5.2 nm average pore diameters, 234 m2g-1surface areas, and proper graphitization degree. As an anode material for lithium-ion batteries, the prepared carbon composite materials demonstrate a specific capacity of 420 mA h g-1after 800 cycles at a current density of 0.2 A g-1. It also displays good rate performance and decent cycling stability. Therefore, this study provides an approach to converting the discarded medical surgical masks into high-quality carbon nanowire anode materials to turn waste into treasure. © 2023 American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
With the prevalence of COVID-19, wearing medical surgical masks has become a requisite measure to protect against the invasion of the virus. Therefore, a huge amount of discarded medical surgical masks will be produced, which will become a potential hazard to pollute the environment and endanger the health of organisms without our awareness. Herein, a green and cost-effective way for the reasonable disposal of waste masks becomes necessary. In this work, we realized the transformation from waste medical surgical masks into high-quality carbon-nickel composite nanowires, which not only benefit the protection of the environment and ecosystem but also contribute to the realization of economic value. The obtained composite carbon-based materials demonstrate 70 S m-1 conductivity, 5.2 nm average pore diameters, 234 m2 g-1 surface areas, and proper graphitization degree. As an anode material for lithium-ion batteries, the prepared carbon composite materials demonstrate a specific capacity of 420 mA h g-1 after 800 cycles at a current density of 0.2 A g-1. It also displays good rate performance and decent cycling stability. Therefore, this study provides an approach to converting the discarded medical surgical masks into high-quality carbon nanowire anode materials to turn waste into treasure.
ABSTRACT
Background: COVID-19 remains a major public health emergency and in-center dialysis provides multiple opportunities for its spread. Elderly immunocompromised hosts pose a significant risk for infection as well as poor outcomes. We present a retrospective analysis of COVID-19 cases in our dialysis unit. Methods: Retrospective analysis was done as a part of a quality improvement project using unidentified patient data including: demographics, distribution of dialysis shift, patient zip code, transportation mode (self, ride share or public transport), residence type (home, long term care facility or homeless shelter), etiology of ESRD and dialysis vintage. T-test and multivariate analysis (including logistic regression for binary and categorical data) were conducted using SPSS v23. Results: There were 70 patients in the unit and 10 became positive for COVID-19. 65/70 (92%) of all patients were African American. Between COVID-19 positive and negative patients, there was no significant difference in age (62±15 vs 63±14 years p=0.2), dialysis vintage (7.6±8.7 vs 5.2±4.7 years p=0.31), male gender (7/10 (70%) vs 40/70 (58%) p=0.31). 5/10 (50%) of the positive patients were MWF 2nd shift. On multivariate analysis, this effect approached significance (p=0.051);however, there was no interaction of COVID-19 positive status with demographic characteristics, dialysis vintage, residence type, zip code distribution, or transportation modality. Of note, universal masking and temperature screening were implemented on March 5, 2020 in this unit and no new cases were noted after May 2, 2020. Conclusions: Our analysis did not show any clear factor associated with COVID-19 infection among our dialysis patients although clustering approached statistical significance. Small sample size and demographic distribution are shortcomings of our study;larger scale epidemiological studies and data analysis are required for better understanding the risk of COVID-19 infection amongst in-center dialysis patients.