RAPID: Cold Adaptive Atmospheric Plasma Decontamination of COVID-19

该RAPID项目的广泛影响将为控制和管理源自非生物物体的冠状病毒疾病（COVID-19）的传播提供有效手段。 这一努力将导致用于对抗冠状病毒的新技术的快速开发和测试。 当前的COVID-19大流行使全球意识到需要净化环境并降低病毒传播的风险。 由于SARS-CoV-2（导致COVID-19的病毒）是新近引入人类领域的，因此有关病毒传播和去污方式的不确定性仍然存在。 据报道，冠状病毒可以在塑料、陶瓷、玻璃和不锈钢等普通材料上存活三天以上。 环境表面的清洁和消毒对于感染预防和医疗相关感染的控制非常重要。 这包括对表面消毒、空气传播病毒净化和皮肤净化的要求。拟议的RAPID项目将推动冷适应大气等离子体去污作为一种有效的消毒方法的发展。该项目将开发一种基于冷适应大气等离子体（CA 2 P）的消毒系统，并结合对这些表面污染的快速检测。 所提出的概念是一种自适应非热等离子体系统。这种基于等离子体的系统将能够快速扫描表面上的病毒菌落，同时引导CA 2 P光束杀死病毒。 该系统还将测试空气传播病毒的处理。 与目前基于湿化学（生物杀灭剂）的消毒方法相比，CA 2 P技术不会对材料造成腐蚀，也不会产生有毒化学物质。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impacts of this RAPID project will provide an effective means to control and manage the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) originating from non-biological objects. This effort will lead to rapid development and testing of a new technology to be used against coronaviruses. The current COVID-19 pandemic has generated worldwide awareness for the need to decontaminate the environment and to reduce the risk of transmission of the virus. As SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) was newly introduced into the human realm, uncertainty remains regarding the virus's spread and ways of decontamination. It has been reported that coronaviruses might survive over three days on common materials such as plastics, ceramics, glass and stainless steel. Cleaning and disinfection of environmental surfaces are important for infection prevention and control of healthcare-associated infections. This includes requirements for surface disinfection, airborne virus decontamination and skin decontamination. The proposed RAPID project will advance the development of Cold Adaptive Atmospheric Plasma Decontamination as an efficient approach for disinfection. The project will develop a disinfection system based on cold adaptive atmospheric plasma (CA2P), in combination with rapid detection of the contamination on these surfaces. The proposed concept is an adaptive non-thermal plasma system. This plasma-based system will be capable of rapidly scanning for viral colonies on the surface and simultaneously directing the CA2P beam for viral kill. The system will also be tested for treatment of airborne viruses. Compared to current disinfection methods based on wet chemistry (biocidal chemicals), the proposed CA2P technique would not cause corrosion of materials nor create toxic chemicals.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.