Durable Self-cleaning Fluorinated Graphene Oxide Coated N95 Respirators

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Title: Durable Self-cleaning Fluorinated Graphene Oxide Coated N95 Respirators Abstract This project addresses the healthcare and social assistance/Immune, Infectious and Dermal Disease Prevention (HSAxIID) with the strategic goal 3: reduce occupational immune, infectious, and dermal disease. The intermediate goal is to prevent the infectious disease transmission with research focus on personal protection equipment (3.3.H). The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is primarily transmitted by virus laden droplets and short-range aerosols. N95 respirator is an essential personal protection equipment to combat COVID-19. Due to concerns over virus accumulation on the respirator for fomite infection, it is crucial to make the respirators less contaminated as possible to better protect the healthcare workers. To address this critical challenge, this application proposes to spray-coat highly fluorinated graphene oxide onto the outer surface of the N95 respirator. Spray coating adds an additional porous nanostructure to the N95 respirator. The highly fluorinated graphene oxide nanostructured coating possesses the exceptional superhydrophobicity. The superhydrophobicity exhibits extreme water repellence and is hypothesized to make the N95 respirators less contaminated by repelling the respiratory droplets off the respirator’s surface instantaneously. In addition, the extraordinary robustness of graphene oxide to various environmental challenges is supposed to address the durability issue associated with frequently reusing. The specific aims are, therefore, to test the highly fluorinated graphene oxide nanostructured coating is (1) capable of repelling respiratory droplets while maintaining the aerosol filtration efficiency; (2) capable of preventing the accumulation of SARS-CoV-2 virus on the N95 respirators. The outputs of the project will be journal articles, reports, and conference proceedings and presentations. The intermediate outcomes will include citations in the literature and adoption of the technology developed in the project. The end outcomes will be better protection of healthcare workers in terms of preventing transmission of work-related infectious diseases among workers by translating this new technology to the healthcare & social assistance sector, addressing Research to Practice (r2p).