[3] Their purpose is to prevent contaminants from entering the site with personnel, and hazardous materials from exiting.
In a cleanroom setting, airborne particles that are not removed by the ventilation system deposit themselves onto a surface, where they can be transported by personnel walking on or past them.
Temporary sticky mats are made of a stack of adhesive plastic film layers that are periodically peeled off and discarded.
Permanent mats are made of a polymer, usually polyester- or polyvinyl chloride-based, that binds particles through electrostatic forces.
[5] A 2012 study found that temporary adhesive mats reduced the particle level on shoes and overshoes by 20–50% while permanent polymeric flooring reduced it by approximately 80%, and that adhesive mats released more particles when they were dirtier and when they were peeled quickly.