Disinfection and Electrostatic Recovery of N95 Respirators by Corona Discharge for Safe Reuse
Disinfection and Electrostatic Recovery of N95 Respirators by Corona Discharge for Safe Reuse
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DOI：
10.1021/acs.est.1c02649
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发表时间：
2021-09-27
影响因子：
11.4
通讯作者：
Zhong, Ying
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Narayanan, Sriram S. K. S.;Wang, Xudong;Zhong, Ying
随着COVID-19大流行的激增，对口罩的需求面临挑战，特别是在世界各地的欠发达地区。数十亿个使用过的口罩正威胁着环境，成为新的塑料污染源。本文探讨了电晕放电（CD）作为一种安全可靠的口罩再利用方法来缓解这种情况。CD可以消毒口罩，同时恢复静电电荷，防止过滤效率下降。CD产生的电场、离子和活性物质导致DNA损伤和蛋白质变性，有效消毒N95口罩。在7.5分钟内可以很容易地达到对大肠杆菌2-3的对数减少。在优化参数下，经过三次循环处理后，对数降低可达6。乳糜泻消毒是广谱的，对酵母菌的对数减少>1，对孢子的对数减少>2.5。N95口罩可在30秒内充电，充电时间至少保持在高于全新口罩的水平5天以上。经过15次循环处理后，口罩的过滤效率保持在95%左右。CD可以提供至少10个安全重用周期，并具有高安全性、可负担性、可访问性和设备可伸缩性/可移植性等优点。
With the COVID-19 pandemic surging, the demand for masks is challenging, especially in less-developed areas across the world. Billions of used masks are threatening the environment as a new source of plastic pollution. In this paper, corona discharge (CD) was explored as a safe and reliable method for mask reuse to alleviate the situation. CD can disinfect masks and simultaneously restore electrostatic charges to prevent filtration efficiency deterioration. Electric field, ions, and reactive species generated by CD cause DNA damage and protein denaturation to effectively disinfect N95 respirators. Log reduction of 2-3 against Escherichia coli can be easily reached within 7.5 min. Log reduction of up to 6 can be reached after three cycles of treatment with optimized parameters. CD disinfection is a broad spectrum with log reduction >1 against yeast and >2.5 against spores. N95 respirators can be recharged within 30 s of treatment and the charges can be retained at a higher level than brand-new masks for at least 5 days. The filtration efficiency of masks was maintained at similar to 95% after 15 cycles of treatment. CD can provide at least 10 cycles of safe reuse with benefits of high safety, affordability, accessibility, and device scalability/portability.