1
|
Liu F, Ma Q, Sabuj MMA, Yen SH, Govindan D, Gao J, Zhao M, Elimelech M, Zhang W. Revolutionizing Airborne Virus Defense: Electromagnetic MXene-Coated Air Filtration for Superior Aerosol Viral Removal. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2024; 16:10148-10157. [PMID: 38363186 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.3c18227] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/17/2024]
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic sparked public health concerns about the transmission of airborne viruses. Current methods mainly capture pathogens without inactivation, leading to potential secondary pollution. Herein, we evaluated the inactivation performance of a model viral species (MS2) in simulated bioaerosol by an electromagnetically enhanced air filtration system under a 300 kHz electromagnetic induction field. A nonwoven fabric filter was coated with a 2D catalyst, MXene (Ti3C2Tx), at a coating density of 4.56 mg·cm-2 to absorb electromagnetic irradiation and produce local heating and electromagnetic field for microbial inactivation. The results showed that the MXene-coated air filter significantly enhanced the viral removal efficiency by achieving a log removal of 3.4 ± 0.15 under an electromagnetic power density of 369 W·cm-2. By contrast, the pristine filter without catalyst coating only garnered a log removal of 0.3 ± 0.04. Though the primary antimicrobial mechanism is the local heating as indicated by the elevated surface temperature of 72.2 ± 4 °C under the electromagnetic field, additional nonthermal effects (e.g., dielectrophoresis) on enhanced viral capture during electromagnetically enhanced filtration were investigated by COMSOL simulation to delineate the potential transmission trajectories of bioaerosol. The results provide unique insights into the mechanisms of pathogen control and thus promote alternative solutions for preventing the transmission of airborne pathogens.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Fangzhou Liu
- John A. Reif, Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, 323 Martin Luther King Blvd., Newark, New Jersey 07102-1982, United States
| | - Qingquan Ma
- John A. Reif, Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, 323 Martin Luther King Blvd., Newark, New Jersey 07102-1982, United States
| | - Md Mohidul Alam Sabuj
- Otto H. York Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, 323 Martin Luther King Blvd., Newark, New Jersey 07102-1982, United States
| | - Shih-Hsiang Yen
- Otto H. York Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, 323 Martin Luther King Blvd., Newark, New Jersey 07102-1982, United States
| | - Dheeban Govindan
- Otto H. York Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, 323 Martin Luther King Blvd., Newark, New Jersey 07102-1982, United States
| | - Jianan Gao
- John A. Reif, Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, 323 Martin Luther King Blvd., Newark, New Jersey 07102-1982, United States
| | - Mengqiang Zhao
- Otto H. York Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, 323 Martin Luther King Blvd., Newark, New Jersey 07102-1982, United States
| | - Menachem Elimelech
- Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8286, United States
| | - Wen Zhang
- John A. Reif, Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, 323 Martin Luther King Blvd., Newark, New Jersey 07102-1982, United States
- Otto H. York Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, 323 Martin Luther King Blvd., Newark, New Jersey 07102-1982, United States
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Karakoç A, Miettinen A, Sözümert E, Evans L, Yiğitler H, Bostanci B, Taciroğlu E, Jäntti R. Microstructural evaluation and recommendations for face masks in community use to reduce the transmission of respiratory infectious diseases. Comput Methods Programs Biomed 2022; 226:107154. [PMID: 36182670 PMCID: PMC9519173 DOI: 10.1016/j.cmpb.2022.107154] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2022] [Revised: 09/12/2022] [Accepted: 09/21/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Recommendations for the use of face masks to prevent and protect against the aerosols (≤5µm) and respiratory droplet particles (≥5µm), which can carry and transmit respiratory infections including severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), have been in effect since the early stages of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The particle filtration efficiency (PFE) and air permeability are the most crucial factors affecting the level of pathogen transmission and breathability, i.e. wearer comfort, which should be investigated in detail. METHODS In this context, this article presents a novel assessment framework for face masks combining X-ray microtomography and computational fluid dynamics simulations. In consideration to their widespread public use, two types of face masks were assessed: (I) two layer non-woven face masks and (II) the surgical masks (made out of a melt-blown fabric layer covered with two non-woven fabric layers). RESULTS The results demonstrate that the surgical masks provide PFEs over 75% for particles with diameter over 0.1µm while two layer face masks are found out to have insufficient PFEs, even for the particles with diameter over 2µm (corresponding PFE is computed as 47.2%). Thus, existence of both the non-woven fabric layers for mechanical filtration and insertion of melt-blown fabric layer(s) for electrostatic filtration in the face masks were found to be highly critical to prevent the airborne pathogen transmission. CONCLUSIONS The present framework would assist in computational assessment of commonly used face mask types based on their microstructural characteristics including fiber diameter, orientation distributions and fiber network density. Therefore, it would be also possible to provide new yet feasible design routes for face masks to ensure reliable personal protection and optimal breathability.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Alp Karakoç
- Aalto University, Department of Communications and Networking, Espoo, Finland.
| | - Arttu Miettinen
- Department of Physics, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland
| | | | - Llion Evans
- College of Engineering, Swansea University, UK
| | - Hüseyin Yiğitler
- Aalto University, Department of Communications and Networking, Espoo, Finland
| | - Başak Bostanci
- Institute Medicana Hospital Istanbul, Ophthalmology Department, İstanbul, Turkey
| | - Ertuğrul Taciroğlu
- University of California Los Angeles, Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering, USA
| | - Riku Jäntti
- Aalto University, Department of Communications and Networking, Espoo, Finland
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Liu F, Qian H. Uncertainty analysis of facemasks in mitigating SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Environ Pollut 2022; 303:119167. [PMID: 35307493 PMCID: PMC8926848 DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119167] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2021] [Revised: 02/14/2022] [Accepted: 03/14/2022] [Indexed: 05/09/2023]
Abstract
In the context of global spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), there is a controversial issue on whether the use of facemasks is promising to control or mitigate the COVID-19 transmission. This study modeled the SARS-CoV-2 transmission process and analyzed the ability of surgical mask and N95 in reducing the infection risk with Sobol's analysis. Two documented outbreaks of COVID-19 with no involvers wearing face masks were reviewed in a restaurant in Guangzhou (China) and a choir rehearsal in Mount Vernon (USA), suggesting that the proposed model can be well validated when airborne transmission is assumed to dominate the virus transmission indoors. Subsequently, the uncertainty analysis of the protection efficiency of N95 and surgical mask were conducted with Monte Carlo simulations, with three main findings: (1) the uncertainty in infection risk is primarily apportioned by respiratory activities, virus dynamics, environment factors and individual exposures; (2) wearing masks can effectively reduce the SARS-CoV-2 infection risk to an acceptable level (< 10-3) by at least two orders of magnitude; (3) faceseal leakage can reduce protection efficiency by approximately 4% when the infector is speaking or coughing, and by approximately 28% when the infector is sneezing. This work indicates the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions during the pandemic, and implies the importance of the synergistic studies of medicine, environment, social policies and strategies, etc., on reducing hazards and risks of the pandemic.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Fan Liu
- School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, Nanjing, China; School of Environment and Architecture, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China
| | - Hua Qian
- School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, Nanjing, China; Engineering Research Center for Building Energy Environments & Equipments, Ministry of Education, China.
| |
Collapse
|