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

新冠肺炎疫情突显了为医疗专业人员和基本工作人员提供可靠个人防护用品的迫切需要。本项目旨在研制自消毒个人防护用品(PPE)材料。这种材料将使用静电纺丝来制造，这种纺丝可以产生小直径的纤维。纤维材料将被两种类型的杀生剂处理，以摧毁病毒等病原体。预计这些材料将具有变革性，因为它们为个人防护装备的广泛使用和/或再利用提供了潜力。这将有助于在使用增加时减少个人防护用品短缺，并有助于减少浪费。调查人员已经为该项目确定了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，以及保护那些从事农业工作的人。这项提议旨在通过静电纺丝和添加新型杀生剂和抗菌处理(四丁基溴化铵(TBAB)和银(Ag)纳米颗粒)来生产可捕获和中和病毒病原体的PPE，以生产具有杀生活性的过滤材料。研究人员推测，这些新型抗菌复合材料将通过耦合物理和(生物)化学去除机制来展示病毒灭活的协同性能。为了验证这一假设，将聚苯乙烯和聚偏氟乙烯电纺制成不同纤维直径的过滤材料，并使用不同尺寸的聚苯乙烯珠子来评估它们的过滤性能。该项目的成果将是对表面活性剂杀菌剂(TBAB)、抗菌银和易于合成的电纺材料的协同效应的基本了解。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.