planarTECH recently launched its 2AM graphene-enhanced face masks, in collaboration with IDEATI. The company (which is now in the last two days of its successful crowdfunding financing round in our Graphene Crowdfunding Arena) was kind enough to send us a few samples of the masks for a short hands-on review.
The face mask has a design that uses unique graphene and other carbon nanomaterials coatings that take advantage of graphene's antibacterial and antistatic properties. The coating has been certified by the Thailand Textile Institute to reduce staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 6538) bacteria by 99.95% within a 24 hour period, and it also repels dust. The mask is washable and reusable (up to 10 times).
While we, of course, cannot verify these antibacterial properties, we did test the masks for a few days. In fact we also gave it to our kids who tested it in school. We're happy to report that the masks were very well received - they are quite comfortable (even when used for a few hours) and easy to handle. In addition they look quite good, and were approved by the younger generation.
planarTECH says that the graphene material also helps to spread heat and thus make the masks more comfortable. This could be true as indeed even in the Israeli summer the masks were comfortable to use for hours.
The mask design was performed by IDEATI, which licensed the technology to planarTECH. planarTECH uses graphene powder (PureGRAPH10) supplied by Australia-based First Graphene. planarTECH expects to order around one tonne of graphene powder each year for these masks.
planarTECH started to ship these masks globally. The cost is $24.95 for a package of three masks. It is also available in the UK and the EU, here. If you are interested in becoming a distributor or to order large volumes, click here.