Development of an Advanced Personal Nasal Sampler (PNS) to Assess Personal Exposures to Infectious Agents
TAEWON HAN, Gediminas Mainelis,
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey Abstract Number: 336
Working Group: Health-Related Aerosols
AbstractThis research focuses on developing a novel personal nasal sampler (PNS) capable of measuring actual personal exposure to airborne infectious agents, including individual viruses, virus-laden droplets, as well as virus-particle agglomerates, thus reducing respiratory health risks. The sampler attaches to a user’s nostrils. It utilizes the person’s own breathing to capture airborne infectious agents on an advanced filter, thereby directly measuring actual personal exposure to those agents. Here we report on the development of PNS. In the first step, we focused on developing a novel, low-pressure hybrid filter (HF) by coating various conventional non-woven microfiber base substrates with a thin coat of electrospun nanofibers. Several base substrates (e.g., spunbond or meltblown fabric filter, nylon mesh screen, MERV 5 or 6 carbon filter) were selected and then coated with polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF or P(VDF-TrFE) polymer nanofibers using electrospinning at (+)20 kV voltage. The performance of the newly created hybrid filters (HF) was investigated by challenging them with polydisperse NaCl particles (aerosolized 1% suspension) or Arizona road dust particles drawn through the filter at 10-15 L/min (i.e., 1.7-2.5 m/s face velocity). The collection efficiency of each produced HF (0.5 inches in diameter) was determined by comparing particle number concentration upstream and downstream of the HF using a MiniWRAS (Grimm Aerosol Technik, Ainring, Germany). The pressure drop was measured across each filter was also measured. The HF based on the MERV 5 carbon filter showed a collection efficiency of approximately 60% for a broad range of particle sizes (10 nm to 5 µm), and the pressure drop was about 100 Pa. In the next step, we will fabricate a filter holder to design PNS, and then the PNS will be installed in a mannequin and operated in different environments.
Keywords: Personal exposure; nasal filter; electrospinning; airborne viruses