RAPID: Collaborative Research: Development of Biocidal Nanofiber Air Filters for Reusable Personal Protective Equipment during Outbreaks of Viral Pathogens

RAPID：合作研究：开发用于病毒病原体爆发期间可重复使用的个人防护设备的杀菌纳米纤维空气过滤器

• 批准号: 2030532
• 负责人: David Cwiertny
• 金额: $ 10万
• 依托单位: University of Iowa
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-06-01 至 2021-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2030532&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; Collaborative; Research; Development; Biocidal

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted a critical need for reliable PPE for medical professionals and essential workers. This project aims to fabricate self-sterilizing personal protective equipment (PPE) material. The material will be made using electrospinning, which produces small-diameter fibers. The fibrous material will be treated with two types of biocidal agents to destroy pathogens such as viruses. These materials are expected to be transformative because they offer the potential for extended use and/or reuse of PPE. This will aid in both reducing PPE shortages in times of increased use and contribute to reduced waste. The investigators have identified hospital and industrial partners for this project. Additionally, future applications of these materials may include filtration systems for hospitals, on airplanes, and in homes and buildings, and to protect those working in agriculture.This proposal aims to produce biocidal filtration materials by electrospinning and adding novel biocide and antimicrobial treatments (tetrabutyl ammonium bromide (TBAB) and silver (Ag) nanoparticles) to produce PPE that captures and neutralizes viral pathogens. The investigators hypothesize that these novel antimicrobial composites will exhibit synergistic performance for virus inactivation by coupling physical and (bio)chemical removal mechanisms. To test this hypothesis, filter materials of varying fiber diameters will be electrospun from polystyrene and poly(vinylidene fluoride), and their filtrations performance will be evaluated using various sized polystyrene beads. The outcome of the project will be fundamental understanding of the synergistic effects of surfactant biocide (TBAB), antimicrobial silver, and easy-to-synthesize, electrospun materials.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.

2019冠状病毒病大流行凸显了对医疗专业人员和基本工作人员可靠个人防护装备的迫切需求。本项目旨在制造自消毒的个人防护装备（PPE）材料。这种材料将使用静电纺丝制成，这种方法可以生产出小直径的纤维。纤维材料将用两种类型的杀菌剂处理，以破坏病原体，如病毒。这些材料有望具有变革性，因为它们提供了延长使用和/或重复使用个人防护装备的潜力。这将有助于在使用增加时减少个人防护装备短缺，并有助于减少浪费。研究人员已经确定了该项目的医院和工业合作伙伴。此外，这些材料的未来应用可能包括医院、飞机、家庭和建筑物的过滤系统，以及保护农业工作者。该方案旨在通过静电纺丝和添加新型杀菌剂和抗菌处理（四丁基溴化铵（TBAB）和银（Ag）纳米颗粒）来生产捕获和中和病毒病原体的PPE，从而生产出杀菌剂过滤材料。研究人员假设，这些新型抗菌复合材料将通过耦合物理和（生物）化学去除机制，在病毒灭活方面表现出协同性能。为了验证这一假设，将用聚苯乙烯和聚偏氟乙烯静电纺不同纤维直径的过滤材料，并使用不同尺寸的聚苯乙烯珠来评估其过滤性能。该项目的成果将是对表面活性剂杀菌剂（TBAB）、抗菌银和易于合成的静电纺丝材料的协同效应的基本理解。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。