Development of a portable bioaerosol capture device for influenza virus detection

Abstract

Many bacteria and viruses are spreading in the air in the living environment, and high concentrations of viruses entering the human body will cause harm. This research is committed to developing a virus collector, which is used to collect influenza and coronavirus in the air. In our system, the intake fan can beget negative pressure into the water circulation channel and bring the virus into it, and then the sensor chip will obtain the electrical signal. In this study, we successfully used methylene blue to simulate viruses in the air. The result of this experiment showed that the distance between the air virus collector and the atomizer was 30 cm in height, 60 cm & 90 cm in length. The capture efficiency was respectively 1.1% and 0.8%. Also, we use lateral flow immunochromatographic assay to detect the collected samples of Influenza H1N1 Hemagglutinin Protein, and the actual limit of detection is 16.97 ng/ml. In addition, the experiments also proved that the water circulation device in this study could accumulate the methylene blue samples onto the sensor. In the future, it can be used with the sensor chip as a virus detection platform which can collect and monitor viruses simultaneously. By using this device, people can be warned and take the necessary precautions to reduce the chance of the transmission of viruses.