Selection and design principle of efficient antiviral nano-hybrid fiber materials for fighting pandemic viruses: A review

Abstract

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in recent years has greatly changed people's lifestyles. Among this, daily protection has become an important step for protecting people from pathogenic viruses. To date, various kinds of antiviral materials have been reported, nano-hybrid materials have been demonstrated for treating infectious diseases caused by viruses or bacteria. However, there are still various problems with existing protective textiles, such as the huge resource consumption caused by their disposable use and their protective role without the ability kill virus. In this review, we summarized the selection and design principle of efficient antiviral nano-hybrid materials through four aspects, namely antiviral strategies, material design, safety and evaluation, and challenges and prospects. First, the description of the structure and inactivation mechanism of viruses are discussed with the coronavirus as an example. Subsequently, existing antiviral materials and their main antiviral mechanisms are briefly summarized. The research progress and applications of nano-hybrid antiviral materials, such as organic, inorganic, and metal-based nano-hybrid antiviral materials, and their derived antiviral fibers and fabrics, are explained in detail. Meanwhile, the safety evaluation of antiviral materials and their limitations are elucidated. Finally, we discussed the challenges and future development in the structural regulation and application of nano-hybrid antiviral materials. We envision that this review could provide significant guidance on the preparation of antiviral nano-hybrid materials, which for manufacturing protective fabrics with highly effective antiviral properties, along with their future design and application to combat viruses that might emerge in the future.