RAPID: Collaborative Research: Development of Biocidal Nanofiber Air Filters for Reusable Personal Protective Equipment during Outbreaks of Viral Pathogens

COVID-19疫情凸显了医疗专业人员和必要工作人员对可靠PPE的迫切需求。 本项目旨在制造自消毒个人防护设备（PPE）材料。该材料将使用静电纺丝制成，可产生小直径纤维。纤维材料将用两种类型的杀生物剂处理以破坏病原体如病毒。预计这些材料将具有变革性，因为它们提供了扩大使用和/或重复使用个人防护设备的潜力。这将有助于在使用增加时减少PPE短缺，并有助于减少浪费。调查人员已经确定了该项目的医院和工业合作伙伴。此外，这些材料的未来应用可能包括医院、飞机、家庭和建筑物的过滤系统，以及保护那些在农业中工作的人。该提案旨在通过静电纺丝和添加新的杀生物剂和抗菌处理（四丁基溴化铵（TBAB）和银（Ag）纳米颗粒）来生产杀生物过滤材料，以生产捕获和中和病毒病原体的PPE。研究人员假设，这些新型抗菌复合材料将通过耦合物理和（生物）化学去除机制来表现出病毒灭活的协同性能。为了检验这一假设，不同纤维直径的过滤材料将由聚苯乙烯和聚（偏二氟乙烯）电纺，并且它们的过滤性能将使用各种尺寸的聚苯乙烯珠来评估。该项目的成果将是对表面活性剂杀生物剂（TBAB）、抗菌银和易于合成的电纺材料的协同效应的基本理解。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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来支持。

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted a critical need for reliable PPE for medical professionals and essential workers. This project aims to fabricate self-sterilizing personal protective equipment (PPE) material. The material will be made using electrospinning, which produces small-diameter fibers. The fibrous material will be treated with two types of biocidal agents to destroy pathogens such as viruses. These materials are expected to be transformative because they offer the potential for extended use and/or reuse of PPE. This will aid in both reducing PPE shortages in times of increased use and contribute to reduced waste. The investigators have identified hospital and industrial partners for this project. Additionally, future applications of these materials may include filtration systems for hospitals, on airplanes, and in homes and buildings, and to protect those working in agriculture.This proposal aims to produce biocidal filtration materials by electrospinning and adding novel biocide and antimicrobial treatments (tetrabutyl ammonium bromide (TBAB) and silver (Ag) nanoparticles) to produce PPE that captures and neutralizes viral pathogens. The investigators hypothesize that these novel antimicrobial composites will exhibit synergistic performance for virus inactivation by coupling physical and (bio)chemical removal mechanisms. To test this hypothesis, filter materials of varying fiber diameters will be electrospun from polystyrene and poly(vinylidene fluoride), and their filtrations performance will be evaluated using various sized polystyrene beads. The outcome of the project will be fundamental understanding of the synergistic effects of surfactant biocide (TBAB), antimicrobial silver, and easy-to-synthesize, electrospun materials.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.