Integrated photothermal decontamination device for N95 respirators.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Infectious Disease Control
• Materials Science

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic caused global shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE), including N95 respirators.
• Limited PPE availability, particularly in low-resource settings, necessitates effective N95 respirator decontamination methods.
• Sustainable N95 respirator use requires rapidly deployable, easy-to-operate decontamination devices.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and validate a novel decontamination device for N95 respirators.
• To assess the device's efficacy in decontaminating masks from microbes and viruses.
• To evaluate the impact of the decontamination process on N95 respirator integrity and filtration capacity.

Main Methods:

• Development of a decontamination device combining UV-C & B irradiation with mild-temperature treatment.
• Testing the device's capacity to decontaminate up to 20 N95 masks per cycle in under 30 minutes.
• Evaluation of microbial and viral eradication efficacy and assessment of mask filtration performance post-treatment.

Main Results:

• The device successfully decontaminated N95 respirators within a 30-minute cycle.
• The decontamination process did not compromise the filtering capacity or structural integrity of the masks.
• Photothermal treatment achieved >99.9999% bacterial and >99.99% viral eradication.

Conclusions:

• The developed photothermal decontamination device offers a viable solution for N95 respirator reuse.
• This technology can help mitigate PPE shortages, especially in resource-limited areas.
• The device ensures effective microbial and viral inactivation while preserving respirator functionality.