determining usable surface area of a mask via vitamin c oxidation staining
image description:
left: the inside, face hugging section of an earloop mask stained by the decomposition of vitamin c into erythrulose right: another of the same earloop mask, unstained. both masks are hanging on hooks by one end of the earloops, in the same orientation
i have been struggling with vitamin c staining some of my clothes and my masks. from what i understand, l-ascorbic acid (vitamin c) oxidises into erythulose (one of the elements in "self tan"). either my body and my local environment are subject to a lot of oxidative stress, or i might be overdoing it with the vitamin c.
either way, this particular pattern of staining in my earloop mask kinda sorta indicates which parts of the mask are making contact with my face. i assume that only the sections of the mask which are stained are making good enough contact with the skin, and are also pretty much not contributing to the filtering surface area. which means that in my case, a very small section of the mask is actually contributing to filtering. of course, this is all conjecture and based on a lot of iffy assumptions though i find it interesting.