Mapping Aerosolized Saliva on Face Coverings for Biosensing Applications

Facemasks in congregate settings prevent the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and help control the ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic because face coverings can arrest transmission of respiratory droplets. While many groups have studied face coverings as personal protective equipment, these respiratory droplets can also serve as a diagnostic fluid to report on health state; surprisingly, studies of face coverings from this perspective are quite limited. Here, we determined the concentration and distribution of aerosolized saliva (via α-amylase levels) captured on various face coverings. Our results showed that α-amylase accumulated on face coverings in a time-dependent way albeit at different levels, e.g., neck gaiters and surgical masks captured about 3-fold more α-amylase than cloth masks and N95 respirators. In addition, the saliva aerosols were primarily detected on the inner layer of multilayered face coverings. We also found that the distribution of salivary droplets on the mask correlated with the morphologies of face coverings as well as their coherence to the face curvature. These findings motivated us to extend this work and build multifunctional sensing strips capable of detecting biomarkers in situ to create "smart" masks. The work highlights that face coverings are promising platforms for biofluid collection and colorimetric biosensing, which bode well for developing surveillance tools for airborne diseases.