Anti-viral Active Air-Purifying Respirator with Photocatalytic Microreactor to Prevent Airborne Diseases

项目摘要/摘要 由一种高影响的呼吸道病原体引起的流行病或大流行的可能性正在增加。研究 新冠肺炎暴发前显示，新发疾病暴发频率上升，其中 自大流行开始以来已经恶化。空气中任何时候都要戴上呼吸防护口罩 空气中存在粉尘、油烟、烟雾和薄雾等污染物。这些污染物还包括 空气传播的细菌、病毒和真菌。目前，大多数市面上可买到的非系带防护口罩是 专为外科或工业安全而设计，可提供足够的空气污染物防护，但 通过粒子过滤来实现这一点。因此，大多数口罩并不能杀灭病原体来保护佩戴者。因此， 当使用主动呼吸器时，过滤后的病原体是活的和有传染性的，可能会进入呼吸道。 延长时间或通过触摸传播。目前的主动呼吸器笨重，设计寿命为2-4小时 使用。简而言之，防护口罩并不是为未经培训的用户长时间日常使用而设计的。直到疫情爆发 对于新冠肺炎来说，抗致病可穿戴式呼吸器的必要性并不像现在这样重要。这 新冠肺炎暴露了我们在为一线提供安全工作环境方面的准备不足 在呼吸道大流行期间的工人。大多数目前的防护口罩只能解决部分所需的 解决方案。一个可行的解决方案需要结合所有关键要求，例如高过滤(≥99%) 纳米级颗粒，病原体-中和，水分消散，环保，舒适 长期使用。拟议的研发工作满足了可穿戴抗致病呼吸器对 受过培训或未受过培训的用户长时间使用。我们建议设计和开发一种主动的、不受限制的、反 病原体全脸呼吸面罩，带有集成的光催化微反应器，可以中和所有 微生物，包括SARS-CoV-2病毒。尽管提议的系统包含以下所有组件 作为一种便携式呼吸器，这些组件被微型化并集成到一个全脸面罩中。因此，该系统 在本提案中被称为全脸口罩。拟议的全脸口罩将周围的空气过滤器吸入出去。 小到100纳米的颗粒(单个SARS-CoV-2病毒颗粒的大小)，通过一个完整的 光催化微反应器杀灭所有微生物和挥发性有机化合物(VOCs)，并供应 为用户提供清洁的空气。口罩还起到了防御通风系统污染的作用。 被生物恐怖主义袭击。这款面具完全不受束缚，一次充电可以运行8-10个小时。这个 主动动力口罩可以使佩戴者免受空气传播的病原体的侵袭，同时保持能见度和舒适性。

Project Summary/Abstract The potential for an epidemic or pandemic caused by a high-impact respiratory pathogen is increasing. Studies prior to the COVID-19 outbreak show that the frequency of outbreaks of newly emerging diseases rose, which has exacerbated since the pandemic started. Respiratory protective masks are used whenever airborne contaminants such as dust, fumes, smoke, and mists are present in the air. The contaminants also include airborne bacteria, viruses, and fungi. Currently, most commercially available untethered protective masks are designed for surgical or industrial safety and may provide adequate protection from airborne contaminants but do so through particle filtering. Therefore, most masks do not kill the pathogens to protect the wearers. Hence, while using an active respirator, the filtered pathogens, which are alive and infectious, may enter the respiratory tract overtime or spread by touch. The current active respirators are bulky, heavy, and designed for 2-4 hours of use. In brief, the protective masks are not designed for prolonged daily use by untrained users. Until the outbreak of COVID-19, the necessity of an anti-pathogenic wearable respirator was not as significant as it is now. This COVID-19 has exposed our lack of preparedness in providing a safe working environment for the frontline workers during the respiratory pandemic. Most current protective respirators address only part of the desired solution. A working solution needs to combine all the critical requirements, such as high filtration (≥ 99%) for nanometer-scale particles, pathogens-neutralization, moisture dissipation, eco-friendliness, and comfortable prolonged use. The proposed R&D effort addresses a wearable anti-pathogenic respirator's critical need for prolonged use by trained or untrained users. We propose designing and developing an active, untethered, anti- pathogen full-face breathing mask with an integrated photocatalytic microreactor that can neutralize all microorganisms, including viruses SARS-CoV-2. Although the proposed system contains all the components of a portable respirator, the components are miniaturized and integrated into a full-face mask. Hence, the system is referred to as a full-face mask in this proposal. The proposed full-face mask intakes surrounding air filters out particles as small as 100 nm (size of a single SARS-CoV-2 viral particle), passes the air through an integrated photocatalytic microreactor killing all the microorganisms, and volatile organic chemicals (VOCs), and supply clean air to the user. The mask also works as a defense against the threat of contamination of ventilation systems by bioterrorism. The mask is completely untethered and designed to run for 8-10 hours with a single charge. The active-powered mask can save the wearer from airborne pathogens while maintaining visibility and comfort.