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Plasma-generated reactive water mist for disinfection of N95 respirators laden with MS2 and T4 bacteriophage viruses
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Plasma-generated reactive water mist for disinfection of N95 respirators laden with MS2 and T4 bacteriophage viruses

Jinjie He, Michael Waring, Alexander Fridman, Alexander Rabinovich, Charles Bailey, Gregory Fridman and Christopher M Sales
Scientific reports, v 12(1), pp 19944-19944
19 Nov 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-23660-5
PMID: 36402800
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
url
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-23660-5View
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open

Abstract

Bacteriophage T4 COVID-19 Disinfection - methods Humans Hydrogen Peroxide N95 Respirators Pandemics Respiratory Protective Devices Viruses Water
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.

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6 citations in Web of Science
7 citations in Scopus

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