COVID-19 : High-volume electrospinning of high-performance cellulose membranes required for N95-grade mask fabrication

COVID-19：N95 级口罩制造所需的高性能纤维素膜的大批量静电纺丝

• 批准号: 549990-2020
• 负责人: Cloutier, Sylvain
• 金额: $ 3.64万
• 依托单位: École de technologie supérieure
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Alliance Grants
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=701315
• 关键词: COVID; 19; volume; electrospinning; performance

In close collaboration with our industrial partners, we propose to exploit our understanding and control of polymer electrospinning, in order to produce high-performance polymer-based filter membranes deposited on medical-grade cellulose substrates. In turn, these high-performance filter membranes will be produced in high volumes by our industrial partners for the manufacturing of N95-grade protection masks essential in the context of the current pandemic. In the last decade, we have done extensive research in order to successfully produce complex micro- and nano-engineered polymer structures using carefully-controlled co-jetting and electrospinning with our own specially-design system. Here, this extensive knowledge (and our apparatus) will be adapted and deployed within our industrial partner's facilities, in order to rapidly reach manufacturing-scale production capabilities. We propose to use medical grade cellulose substrates (produced in Gatineau, Québec) in order to deposit a biocompatible electrospun fiber layer. In order to achieve N95-grade specifications (95% air transmission while blocking 0.3+ microns particles and droplets), the electrospun film will have to be fused into a denser self-sustaining membrane filter using one of four techniques readily accessible by our team. As such, the key research objective of this project will be to explore four (4) manufacturing-ready post-processing techniques, namely: (1) infrared curing of the electrospun film using Adphos manufacturing equipment; (2) industrial hot-press equipment; (3) deposition on a pre-heated cellulose substrate using an industrial hot-bed carrier; and (4) photonic (flash) curing using Novacentrix manufacturing equipment in order to achieve a proper curing of the electrospun polymer film and obtain N95-grade membrane filters with good mechanical properties to be produced in high-volume and at relatively low costs.

通过与我们的工业合作伙伴密切合作，我们建议利用我们对聚合物静电纺丝的理解和控制，以生产沉积在医用级纤维素基材上的高性能聚合物基过滤膜。反过来，我们的工业合作伙伴将大量生产这些高性能过滤膜，用于制造在当前疫情背景下必不可少的N95级防护口罩。在过去的十年中，我们已经做了广泛的研究，以成功地生产复杂的微和纳米工程聚合物结构，使用精心控制的共喷射和静电纺丝与我们自己的特殊设计的系统。 在这里，我们将在我们的工业合作伙伴的设施中调整和部署这些广泛的知识（以及我们的设备），以快速达到制造规模的生产能力。我们建议使用医用级纤维素基材（在魁北克省的加蒂诺生产），以便存款生物相容的电纺纤维层。为了达到N95级规格（95%的空气透过率，同时阻挡0.3微米以上的颗粒和液滴），电纺膜必须使用我们团队易于获得的四种技术之一融合成更致密的自持膜过滤器。因此，本项目的主要研究目标将是探索四（4）种制造就绪后处理技术，即： (1)使用Adphos制造设备对电纺膜进行红外固化; (2)工业热压设备; (3)使用工业热床载体在预热的纤维素基底上沉积;以及 (4)使用Novacentrix制造设备的光子（闪光）固化 以便实现电纺聚合物膜的适当固化，并获得具有良好机械性能的N95级膜过滤器，以大批量和相对低的成本生产。