Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
C. & J. Nyheim Plasma Institute, Drexel University, Camden, NJ, USA.
Sci Rep. 2022 Nov 19;12(1):19944. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-23660-5.
Due to the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the COVID-19 pandemic, the interest and demand for sterilization devices to reuse PPE has increased. For reuse of face masks, they must be effectively decontaminated of potential infectious agents without compromising its filtration ability during sterilization. In this study, we utilized an atmospheric pressure pulsed dielectric barrier discharge (DBD), combined with nebulized liquid microdroplets to generate plasma-activated mist (PAM). MS2 and T4 bacteriophages were used to conduct the decontamination tests on two types of N95 respirators. Results showed at least a 2-log reduction of MS2 and T4 on N95 respirators treated in one cycle with 7.8% hydrogen peroxide PAM and at least a 3-log reduction treated in 10% hydrogen peroxide PAM. In addition, it was found that there was no significant degradation in filtration efficiency of N95 respirators (3M 1860 and 1804) treated in 10% hydrogen peroxide PAM found after 20 cycles. In terms of re-useability of masks after treatment as determined, it was shown that the elastic straps of 3M 1804 were fragmented after 20 treatment cycles rendering them unusable, while the straps of 3M 1860 were not negatively affected even after 20 disinfection cycles.
由于 COVID-19 大流行期间个人防护设备 (PPE) 的短缺，对可重复使用 PPE 的消毒设备的兴趣和需求有所增加。对于重复使用口罩，必须在不损害其过滤能力的情况下对其进行有效消毒，以去除潜在的传染性病原体。在这项研究中，我们利用大气压脉冲介质阻挡放电 (DBD)，结合雾化的微小液滴来产生等离子体激活雾 (PAM)。我们使用 MS2 和 T4 噬菌体对两种 N95 呼吸器进行了去污测试。结果表明，用 7.8%过氧化氢 PAM 处理一个循环，可使 N95 呼吸器上的 MS2 和 T4 减少至少 2 个对数级，用 10%过氧化氢 PAM 处理可减少至少 3 个对数级。此外，在经过 20 次循环的 10%过氧化氢 PAM 处理后，发现 N95 呼吸器（3M 1860 和 1804）的过滤效率没有明显下降。就处理后的口罩重复使用性而言，表明 3M 1804 的弹性带在经过 20 次处理循环后已经断裂，无法再使用，而 3M 1860 的带即使经过 20 次消毒循环也没有受到负面影响。
