Development and manufacturing of innovative, low-cost, mass-produced, environmentally friendly filters and masks protecting against COVID-19

开发和制造创新、低成本、批量生产、环保的过滤器和口罩，以预防 COVID-19

• 批准号: EP/W01114X/1
• 负责人: Constantina Lekakou
• 金额: $ 66.48万
• 依托单位: University of Surrey
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FW01114X%2F1
• 关键词: Development; manufacturing; innovative; low; cost

Given the surge in demand for masks to protect against CONVID-19, there is huge investment for new mask manufacturing plants in UK. A shortage of specialised mask materials points to the need to also manufacture these materials in UK. Enlisted in this herculean effort, we have assembled a team of industrial partners, including mask manufacturers, an equipment manufacturer, and testing companies. Our project aims at bringing manufacturing of filters and masks to the UK, lowering the cost and developing a roll-to-roll process of additive manufacturing using low-cost, abundant and environmentally-friendly materials. The principal idea of this project is to select, after testing, a range of natural-fibre cloths, to be used as substrate for additive manufacturing. Such substrates will be coated with a novel porous layer with functional groups trapping the COVID-19 and other high-risk viruses. Electrospinning is proposed as our additive manufacturing technique, where the assembly of coating layer(s) and cloth substrate will protect against the virus by filtering it, depending on porosity, pore size, fibre orientation, coating layer thickness and functional groups of coating and cloth. The proposed project includes the following tasks: (a) molecular simulations to screen materials and functional groups in terms of their binding energy with the virus spike; (b) continuum infiltration mechanics simulations to investigate the virus migration through the porous material assembly, as well as the air flow for breathing in the case of masks or air flow filters; (c) development of the electrospinning to a continuous roll-to-roll process; (d) material and product testing.

鉴于防范covid -19的口罩需求激增，英国对新口罩制造厂的投资巨大。专业口罩材料的短缺也表明需要在英国生产这些材料。在这项艰巨的工作中，我们组建了一个工业合作伙伴团队，包括口罩制造商、设备制造商和测试公司。我们的项目旨在将过滤器和口罩的制造引入英国，降低成本，开发一种卷对卷的增材制造工艺，使用低成本、丰富和环保的材料。这个项目的主要想法是在测试后选择一系列天然纤维布料，作为增材制造的基材。这些底物将被涂上一层新的多孔层，其官能团可以捕获COVID-19和其他高风险病毒。静电纺丝被提议作为我们的增材制造技术，其中涂层层和布基材的组装将通过过滤病毒来保护病毒，这取决于孔隙率，孔径大小，纤维取向，涂层层厚度以及涂层和布的官能团。拟议的项目包括以下任务：(a)分子模拟，根据材料和官能团与病毒刺突的结合能筛选它们；(b)连续渗透力学模拟，以研究病毒通过多孔材料组件的迁移，以及在口罩或气流过滤器的情况下呼吸的气流；(c)将静电纺丝发展为连续的卷对卷工艺；(d)材料和产品测试。