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.
