Charged PVDF multilayer nanofiber filter in filtering simulated airborne novel coronavirus (COVID-19) using ambient nano-aerosols

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19), average size 100 nm, can be aerosolized by cough, sneeze, speech and breath of infected persons. The airborne carrier for the COVID-19 can be tiny droplets and particulates from infected person, fine suspended mists (humidity) in air, or ambient aerosols in air. To-date, unfortunately there are no test standards for nano-aerosols (≤100 nm). A goal in our study is to develop air filters (e.g. respirator, facemask, ventilator, medical breathing filter/system) with 90% capture on 100-nm airborne COVID-19 with pressure drop of less than 30 Pa (3.1 mm water). There are two challenges. First, this airborne bio-nanoaerosol (combined virus and carrier) is amorphous unlike cubic NaCl crystals. Second, unlike standard laboratory tests on NaCl and test oil (DOP) droplets, these polydispersed aerosols all challenge the filter simultaneously and they are of different sizes and can interact among themselves complicating the filtration process. For the first time, we have studied these two effects using ambient aerosols (simulating the bio-nanoaerosols of coronavirus plus carrier of different shapes and sizes) to challenge electrostatically charged multilayer/multimodule nanofiber filters. This problem is fundamentally complicated due to mechanical and electrostatic interactions among aerosols of different sizes with induced charges of different magnitudes. The test filters were arranged in 2, 4, and 6 multiple-modules stack-up with each module having 0.765 g/m2 of charged PVDF nanofibers (mean diameter 525 ± 191 nm). This configuration minimized electrical interference among neighboring charged nanofibers and reduced flow resistance in the filter. For ambient aerosol size>80 nm (applicable to the smallest COVID-19), the electrostatic effect contributes 100-180% more efficiency to the existing mechanical efficiency (due to diffusion and interception) depending on the number of modules in the filter. By stacking-up modules to increase fiber basis weight in the filter, a 6-layer charged nanofiber filter achieved 88%, 88% and 96% filtration efficiency for, respectively, 55-nm, 100-nm and 300-nm ambient aerosol. This is very close to attaining our set goal of 90%-efficiency on the 100-nm ambient aerosol. The pressure drop for the 6-layer nanofiber filter was only 26 Pa (2.65 mm water column) which was below our limit of 30 Pa (3.1 mm water). For the test multi-module filters, a high 'quality factor' (efficiency-to-pressure-drop ratio) of about 0.1 to 0.13 Pa-1 can be consistently maintained, which was far better than conventional filters. Using the same PVDF 6-layer charged nanofiber filter, laboratory tests results using monodispersed NaCl aerosols of 50, 100, and 300 nm yielded filtration efficiency, respectively, 92%, 94% and 98% (qualified for 'N98 standard') with same pressure drop of 26 Pa. The 2-6% discrepancy in efficiency for the NaCl aerosols was primarily attributed to the absence of interaction among aerosols of different sizes using monodispersed NaCl aerosols in the laboratory. This discrepancy can be further reduced with increasing number of modules in the filter and for larger 300-nm aerosol. The 6-layer charged nanofiber filter was qualified as a 'N98 respirator' (98% capture efficiency for 300-nm NaCl aerosols) but with pressure drop of only 2.65-mm water which was 1/10 below conventional N95 with 25-mm (exhaling) to 35-mm (inhaling) water column! The 6-layer charged PVDF nanofiber filter provides good personal protection against airborne COVID-19 virus and nano-aerosols from pollution based on the N98 standard, yet it is at least 10X more breathable than a conventional N95 respirator.