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

由乔治华盛顿大学和加州大学河滨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，以控制包括SARS-CoV-2在内的冠状病毒的传播。2019冠状病毒病大流行在2020年引发了重大的公共卫生担忧。COVID-19的传播难以控制，因为SARS-CoV-2具有环境持久性，并且可能悬浮在气溶胶中进行远程空气传播和感染。空气过滤对于控制SARS-CoV-2的传播至关重要，然而，住宅、商业和工业建筑中使用的大多数空气过滤器都不能有效地保留病毒。作为医护人员甚至公众的个人防护装备，能够有效捕获病毒的呼吸器和口罩也是本次大流行急需的。静电纺丝技术是一种合成非织造纳米纤维垫的新技术，它既具有大规模生产的工业可行性，也可通过便携式设备在现场进行小规模应用。制备的纳米纤维垫是空气过滤的理想选择，因为它们具有较小的孔径以有效捕获病毒，较大的孔隙度以减少过滤时的空气压降，良好的控制性能以及机械稳健性和灵活性。该RAPID研究项目将合理设计和制造新型纳米材料空气过滤器，用于控制冠状病毒，了解复杂环境基质中病毒病原体与纳米材料的相互作用，并启动快速响应，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，并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，特别是那些来自代表性不足群体的学生介绍STEM的前沿研究。此外，该项目将通过教育模块、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。研究团队的目标是合理设计和制造有效、低成本、可扩展、易于实施的电纺纳米纤维空气过滤器，以控制包括SARS-CoV-2在内的冠状病毒，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多种形态、保留电荷和选择性结合位点的电纺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稳健性。通过模拟和实验手段确定关键的病毒-纳米材料相互作用，为未来空气过滤器的设计和优化提供指导。在这个RAPID项目中，研究人员还将在一个容纳COVID-19患者的医疗机构中测试空气过滤器去除SARS-CoV-2的性能。这项研究将对纳米技术、微生物学和环境工程做出重大贡献，并可能在多尺度、合理、功能设计方面对材料领域产生潜在的变革。它不仅将提供对COVID-19疫情的快速反应和公共卫生保护，而且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，特别是向代表性不足的群体和不同背景和教育水平的学生介绍前沿研究。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。

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.