EAGER-Development of Antiviral Functionalized Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) for Generating Virus-free Medical Grade Water and Preventing the Spread of COVID-19

在这一点上，迫切需要解决与冠状病毒(新冠肺炎)爆发相关的许多问题，包括阻止病毒的传播，以及帮助不堪重负的医疗行业应对不同的问题。该项目的目标是产生抗病毒的功能化碳纳米管，它将有几个与新冠肺炎大流行有关的应用。首先，功能化的纳米管可以用作医用口罩等个人防护装备(PPE)的自清洁吸附剂。许多商用涂料配方含有碳纳米管，抗病毒纳米管将成为防止新冠肺炎通过表面接触传播的有效材料。一个直接的应用是碳纳米管增强的膜蒸馏，用于廉价的细菌/内毒素/无病毒医用级水的产生。这些水被用来清洁医疗设备，并在病人治疗中用作注射水。最重要的是，带有抗病毒纳米管的膜蒸馏将发展成为一种医疗保健技术，在野战医院可以使用家用热水器或微波炉来产生医用级水。该项目的目标是开发具有高抗病毒活性的功能化碳纳米管，以阻止新冠肺炎的传播，并帮助不堪重负的医疗行业。这项工作将是已经在细菌和内毒素方面进行的工作的延伸。提出的两项主要任务是开发具有抗病毒活性的特定碳纳米管功能形式，以及开发用于产生细菌/内毒素/无病毒医用级水的碳纳米管增强微波诱导膜蒸馏。在第一个任务中，将通过加入不同的抗病毒药物来合成功能化的碳纳米管。在第二个任务中，这些纳米管将被用来合成用于膜蒸馏的杀生膜。在提出的工艺中，由于热污染的水将通过抗病毒纳米管膜，它将部分转化为水蒸气，作为纯净水通过，而疏水膜将阻止水相渗透。在这个项目中，我们还建议使用微波来加热水，因为这具有额外的生物杀灭效果。通过固定化抗病毒碳纳米管开发的新型膜不仅可以作为纯水的分子转运体，而且还具有生物杀灭特性，可以产生高纯度的医用级水。开发的方法将为特定的碳纳米管功能化打开大门，以应对不同的细菌和病毒。这些功能化的纳米管可用于吸附剂和膜，以在空气净化器、个人防护设备(PPE)(如防毒面具)和水处理中提供有效的病毒保护。由于许多商用涂料配方含有碳纳米管，因此表面涂层中的抗病毒纳米管将有助于防止通过表面接触传播的新冠肺炎(或其他病毒)的传播。该项目的教育目标是将纳米技术扩展到疾病预防和医疗基础设施中，这在过去并没有得到强调，但具有重大的潜在好处。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

At this point there is an urgent need to address many issues related to the Corona virus (COVID-19) outbreak including stopping the spread of the virus, and helping the overwhelmed healthcare industry cope with different problems. The goal of this project is to generate antiviral functionalized carbon nanotubes which will have several applications related to the COVID-19 pandemic. First, the functionalized nanotubes can be used as self-cleaning sorbents in personal protection equipment (PPE) such as medical masks. Many commercial paints/coatings formulations contain carbon nanotubes, and the anti-viral nanotubes will be effective materials for preventing the spread of COVID-19 via surface contacts. An immediate application is carbon nanotube-enhanced membrane distillation for inexpensive bacteria/endotoxin/virus-free medical-grade water generation. This water is used for cleaning medical equipment and as injectable water in patient treatment. Most importantly the membrane distillation with antiviral nanotubes will be developed into a point-of-care technology where a domestic water heater or a microwave oven can be used to generate medical grade water in field hospitals. The Objective of this project is to develop functionalized carbon nanotubes with high anti-viral activity for stopping the spread of Covid-19 and helping the overwhelmed healthcare industry. The work will be an extension of work already underway with bacteria and endotoxins. The two major proposed tasks are the development of specific carbon nanotube functional forms with antiviral activity, and the development of carbon nanotube enhanced microwave induced membrane distillation for generating bacteria/endotoxins/virus free medical grade water. In the first task, functionalized carbon nanotubes will be synthesized by the incorporation of different antiviral agents. In the second task these nanotubes will be used to synthesize biocidal membranes for membrane distillation. In the proposed process, as the hot contaminated water will pass over the antiviral nanotube membrane, it will be partially transformed to water vapor that will pass through as purified water while the hydrophobic membrane will prevent the aqueous phase from permeating through. In this project we also propose to use microwaves to heat the water because this has additional biocidal effects. The novel membranes developed by immobilizing the antiviral carbon nanotubes will not only serve as molecular transporters for pure water generation, but also have biocidal properties that will generate highly pure medical grade water. The developed approach will open the door to specific carbon nanotube functionalization to deal with different bacteria and virus. These functionalized nanotubes can be used in adsorbents and membranes to provide effective virus protection in air purifiers, in personal protection equipment (PPE) such as gas masks and for water treatment. Since many commercial paints/coatings formulations contain carbon nanotubes, the anti-viral nanotubes in surface coating will serve to prevent the spread of COVID-19 (or other viruses) that transmit via surface contacts. The educational goal of the project is the expansion of nanotechnology into disease prevention and medical infrastructure, which has not been emphasized in the past but has significant potential benefits.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.