N95 Inventor Returns to Research During COVID-19|N95口罩之父蔡秉燚 為抗疫重返研究室

Despite the shortage of protective supplies, medical personnel around the globe risk their own lives in order to save others amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Dubbed the "father of N95 mask", Taiwan-born scientist Peter Tsai has come out of retirement, working on finding ways to sterilize masks for reuse amid global shortage.


As an important protective device to combat the pandemic, the N95 face mask is no stranger to most Taiwanese people. But probably not too many know that Peter Tsai, the American inventor of the key technology behind the mask, was born in Taiwan, who has recently come out of retirement to study safe ways to sterilize the masks for reuse amid global shortages caused by the COVID-19.

I did not expect that this will happen, but this happened, so...

Tsai, now 68, laughed when talking about his unexpected delayed retirement. He worked as a research scholar at the University of Tennessee's in the U.S. where in 1992 he developed the electrostatic filtration charging technology used in nonwoven fabric, a key component of the N95 masks that filters most of the viruses and has benefited over 1 billion people. He retired last year but this COVID-19 pandemic has made him decide to go back to the research field upon seeing the supply strains of the N95 face mask in the U.S.

I just feel obligated to help the industries and to provide information to find a way to sterilize the masks.

Tsai is working strenuously on finding a way to safely sterilize the N95 masks.

After treatment of 70 degrees for 24 hours, then the efficiency only reduced by 0.5 percent so it is still 98.5 percent effective.

Tsai said that sterilizing the masks under high-temperatures to kill the virus might be a way for the masks to be reused and hopefully to ease up the shortage of N95 masks faced by the medical personnel.



擺在桌上的，是台灣民眾很熟悉的N95口罩，也是防疫最重要的醫療物資之一。但因新冠病毒大流行，各國口罩供應吃緊，也讓發明N95口罩的台裔美國工程師蔡秉燚，放棄退休計畫。

N95口罩之父 蔡秉燚表示：「我沒想到會發生這種情況，但就發生了…」

今年68歲的蔡秉燚，笑著說延後退休，完全是意外。他原本是美國田納西大學的研究學者，1992年研發出N95口罩中，能過濾大部分病毒的靜電熔噴布，造福超過10億人。去年已退休，沒想到全球爆發疫情，美國也陷入口罩短缺困境，讓他決定重回研究崗位。

N95口罩之父 蔡秉燚表示：「我只覺得有義務，幫助工業並提供資訊，來找到一種消毒口罩的方法。」

蔡秉燚正在努力的，就是找出讓N95口罩安全消毒的方法。

N95口罩之父 蔡秉燚表示：「(N95口罩)在攝氏70度下，處理24小時後，效能應該只減低0.5%，所以仍有98.5%的功效。」

他提到，如果透過高溫處理，能讓病毒無法存活，也許就能讓口罩重複使用，舒緩醫療人員N95口罩不足的問題。