Dry Aerosol Coating of Anti-viral Particles on Commercial Air Filters Using a High-volume Flow Atomizer

Yun Haeng Joe,Dae Hoon Park,Jungho Hwang

doi:10.4209/aaqr.2019.04.0212

Yun Haeng Joe, Dae Hoon Park + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2019.04.0212

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Abstract

ABSTRACT Filtration is a common air cleaning technique used to remove airborne particulates. However, microorganisms can survive and multiply on the filter’s surface in heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems. These multiplied microorganisms eventually disperse in the air. The most conventional method of coating pristine air filter media with anti-viral material involves applying a wet coating via solution processing, wherein the filter media needs to be soaked in a solution containing a large amount of dispersed anti-viral material, and then drying the coated filter using a heated air flow. However, the latter step requires additional time and energy and often causes the deformation of the filter material. By contrast, applying an aerosolized coating is a dry process, wherein aerosolized anti-viral material is directly deposited on the filter at atmospheric pressure and room temperature. In this work, we design a laboratory-made atomizer to generate highly concentrated aerosolized particles at a high flow rate (> 200 L min–1). The generated anti-viral material (SiO2-Ag nanoparticles), which includes liquid droplets, is dried by a sheath air flow and directly applied to a commercial air filter unit. The coated anti-viral filter is evaluated for filtration efficiency and anti-viral activity against aerosolized MS2 bacteriophage.

Highlights

The increase in human indoor activities and rapid urbanization has placed a spotlight on improving indoor air quality to remove and inactivate bioaerosols (Leung et al, 2009)
The most conventional method of coating pristine air filter media with anti-viral material involves applying a wet coating via solution processing, wherein the filter media needs to be soaked in a solution containing a large amount of dispersed anti-viral material, and drying the coated filter using a heated air flow
By contrast, applying an aerosolized coating is a dry process, wherein aerosolized anti-viral material is directly deposited on the filter at atmospheric pressure and room temperature

Summary

Introduction

The increase in human indoor activities and rapid urbanization has placed a spotlight on improving indoor air quality to remove and inactivate bioaerosols (Leung et al, 2009). The multiplied microorganisms with their microbial volatile organic compounds may be released into the air (Park and Jang, 2003; Verdenelli et al, 2003; Cecchini et al, 2004; Byeon et al, 2007). To address this issue, antimicrobial filters with prompt antimicrobial activity have been fabricated by coating air filter media with various antimicrobial agents (Sim et al, 2015; Taylor et al, 2016; Choi et al, 2018; Pokhum et al, 2018; Ren et al, 2018)

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