Quaternary ammonium salt coated air filter for bioaerosol removal from building indoor air

• Published in: Building and environment Vol. 250; p. 111158
• Main Authors: Jiang, Huixin, Li, Kai, Graham, David E., Hollander, Attelia, Paranthaman, Mariappan P., Muneeshwaran, M., Liu, Xiaoli, Theodore, Merlin, Aytug, Tolga, An, Keju, Nawaz, Kashif
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Ltd 15-02-2024; Elsevier
• Subjects: Air filter; Antibacterial; Bioaerosol; Indoor air quality; INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY; Quaternary ammonium salt; Quaternary ammonium salt; Air filter; Antibacterial; Bioaerosol; Indoor air quality
• ISSN: 0360-1323; 1873-684X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.buildenv.2023.111158

Developing air filters with biocidal ability is important to protect the public from infectious respiratory diseases. A simple spray-coating approach was devised to fabricate antimicrobial air filters to remove bioaerosols. The commercial antimicrobial agent Goldshield 75 was coated on the air filters through covalent immobilization, endowing the fabricated filter with long-lasting biocidal ability. All coated filters significantly inhibited both Gram-positive bacteria (Micrococcus luteus) and Gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli). The antibacterial ability of the coated filters is similar to the commercial AeraSafe antibacterial filter. The coated filter showed over 99.9 % antibacterial efficiency 3 months after the application of the coating. Both bacterial and virus filtration efficiencies of coated charged polypropylene filter were higher than 99.9 %. The coating did not have much effect on the NaCl aerosol filtration efficiency of the filters. This simple spray-coating strategy is a practical method for producing antimicrobial air filters for the prevention of infectious respiratory diseases.
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•An antimicrobial polypropylene filter was prepared using spray coating.•The antimicrobial filter had high filtration efficiency against particles, bacteria, and viruses.•The antimicrobial filter maintains its high antibacterial ability after three months.•This study provides a simple strategy for developing antibacterial filters to improve indoor air quality.