RAPID: Collaborative Research: Electrospun Nanofibrous Air Filters for Coronavirus Control

由乔治华盛顿大学和加州大学滨江分校的研究人员组成的一个合作小组正在开发电纺纳米纤维空气过滤器，用于控制包括SARS-CoV-2在内的冠状病毒的传播。2019冠状病毒病疫情于二零二零年引发重大公共卫生问题。COVID-19的传播很难控制，因为SARS-CoV-2具有环境持久性，它可能悬浮在气溶胶中进行远距离、空气传播和感染。空气过滤对于控制SARS-CoV-2传播至关重要，但大多数用于住宅，商业和工业建筑的空气过滤器对保留病毒无效。作为医护人员甚至普通大众的个人防护装备，能够有效捕捉病毒的口罩和口罩也是此次大流行急需的。静电纺丝已经成为一种合成非织造纳米纤维垫的新技术，并且它对于大规模制造在工业上是可行的，并且可通过便携式设备现场部署用于小规模应用。制造的纳米纤维垫是空气过滤的理想选择，因为它们具有减小的孔径以有效捕获病毒，大的孔隙率以减少过滤中的空气压降，良好的控制性能以及机械鲁棒性和柔性。这个快速研究项目将合理设计和制造新型纳米材料空气过滤器用于冠状病毒控制，了解病毒病原体和纳米材料在复杂环境基质中的相互作用，并启动快速反应，以工程工具保护公众健康。该项目将为科学和工程领域的学生提供培训，为他们提供实践研究经验，并向来自不同背景和教育水平的学生，特别是来自代表性不足群体的学生介绍STEM的前沿研究。此外，该项目将通过教育单元、科学期刊和会议以及科学博览会传播所获得的知识，这将有助于提高公众的科学素养。该研究小组旨在合理设计和制造有效，低成本，可扩展且易于实施的静电纺丝纳米纤维空气过滤器，用于冠状病毒控制，包括SARS-CoV-2，并了解空气过滤中冠状病毒的去除机制。研究人员将首先开发具有不同形态、保留电荷和选择性结合位点的静电纺丝纳米纤维空气过滤器，以增强对含有冠状病毒的生物气溶胶的捕获。接下来将评估不同环境条件下的冠状病毒去除效率，以了解空气过滤器的性能和耐用性。关键的病毒-纳米材料相互作用将在模拟和实验工具的帮助下确定，这可以指导未来的空气过滤器设计和优化。对于这个RAPID项目，研究人员还将测试空气过滤器在容纳COVID-19患者的医疗机构中去除SARS-CoV-2的性能。拟议的研究将对纳米技术，微生物学和环境工程做出重大贡献，并且在多尺度，合理，功能设计方面，它可能在材料领域具有潜在的变革性。它不仅将为COVID-19疫情和公共卫生保护提供快速反应，还将转化为控制其他致命病原体。该项目将为STEM学生提供培训，特别是向来自代表性不足群体的学生以及来自不同背景和教育水平的学生介绍尖端研究。此外，该项目将传播所获得的知识，以帮助提高公众的科学素养。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得支持的评估使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

A collaborative team consisting of researchers from The George Washington University and the University of California, Riverside is developing electrospun nanofibrous air filters for controlling the transmission of coronavirus, including SARS-CoV-2. The pandemic of COVID-19 has raised a significant public health concern in 2020. The spread of COVID-19 is difficult to control, because SARS-CoV-2 is environmentally persistent and it can potentially be suspended in aerosols for long-range, airborne transmission and infection. Air filtration is crucial to control SARS-CoV-2 transmission, however most air filters used in residential, commercial, and industrial buildings are not effective for retaining viruses. As personal protective equipment for healthcare personnel or even the general public, respirators and masks that can effectively capture the virus are also urgently needed for this pandemic. Electrospinning has emerged as a novel technology to synthesize non-woven nanofibrous mats, and it is both industrially viable for large-scale manufacturing and deployable onsite for small-scale applications by a portable device. The fabricated nanofibrous mats are ideal for air filtration, because they have a reduced pore size to efficiently capture the virus, a large porosity to reduce air pressure drop in filtration, well-controlled properties, and mechanical robustness and flexibility. This RAPID research project will rationally design and fabricate novel nanomaterial-based air filters for coronavirus control, understand the interplay between viral pathogens and nanomaterials in complex environmental matrices, and initiate a fast response for protecting the public health with engineering tools. The project will provide training to students in science and engineering areas and offer them hands-on research experience, and introduce students from diverse backgrounds and educational levels, particularly those from underrepresented groups, to cutting-edge research in STEM. In addition, the project will disseminate the acquired knowledge through education modules, scientific journals and conferences, and science fairs, which will help increase the scientific literacy of the general public. The research team aims to rationally design and fabricate electrospun nanofibrous air filters that are effective, low-cost, scalable, and easy for implementation for coronavirus control, including SARS-CoV-2, and to understand the mechanism of coronavirus removal in air filtration. The researchers will first develop electrospun nanofibrous air filters with diverse morphologies, retained charges, and selective binding sites to enhance the capture of bioaerosols containing coronavirus. Coronavirus removal efficiency under different environmental conditions will next be evaluated to understand the performance and robustness of the air filters. Key virus-nanomaterial interactions will be identified with the aid of both simulation and experimental tools, which can guide future air filter design and optimization. For this RAPID project, the researchers will also test the performance of air filters for removing SARS-CoV-2 in a healthcare facility that houses COVID-19 patients. The proposed research will contribute significantly to nanotechnology, microbiology, and environmental engineering, and it can be potentially transformative in the field of materials at large in terms of multiscale, rational, functional design. It will not only provide a rapid response to COVID-19 outbreaks and public health protection, but also be translated into controlling other virulent pathogens. The project will provide training to students in STEM, particularly introduce students from underrepresented groups and students from diverse backgrounds and educational levels to cutting-edge research. Moreover, the project will disseminate the acquired knowledge to help increase the scientific literacy of the general public.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.