Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

Late last month, the Innov865 Alliance presented its inaugural “Innov865 Impact Award” to Peter Tsai, the retired University of Tennessee researcher. He is the individual who developed the now well-known and valued N95 mask material that is made of melt-blown polypropylene, or PP, a non-woven material that is permanently electrostatically charged with millions of microfibers layered on top of each other. The filter is capable of removing more than 95 percent of submicron particles found in viruses like COVID-19.

Now come more details in this article about the role that Tsai played when he came out of retirement to help Oak Ridge National Laboratory and researchers at its Carbon Fiber Technology Facility and Manufacturing Demonstration Facility support a Florida-based medical device manufacturer gear-up to produce the much needed and in short supply masks.

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