Capture and Kill Microstructured Oriented Fiber (MOF) Filter

MicroET in conjunction with NanoScale Materials proposes to develop a universal approach to filtering particulate hazards for building applications. MicroET proposes to extract biological and submicron-chemical materials from air to capture, kill, and identify the presence of pathogens and toxic particle hazards. We propose to accomplish this filtering in building environments with a microstructured platform that facilitates size-selective aerosol sampling at minimal pressure drops. The building air flow contains airborne particulate and submicron-chemicals that pose difficulties for conventional fiber-based filters such as high efficiency air particle (HEPA) filters. The proposed strategically arranged coated (fiber optic-like) microstructures utilizing electric fields facilitates the efficient capture of particle hazards. The deposited sample on the microstructured array serves as a universal collection surface suitable for interrogation by multiple identification techniques. The proposed miniature platform that facilitates the retention of hazardous chemical and biological species extracted from air is described as a microstructured oriented fiber (MOF) filter. The chemical/biological MOF filter system retrofits into ventilation systems and would capture hazardous particles in the 1-10 micron size. The addition of electrostatic fields to a row of microstructures within the array allows submicron aerosols to be captured.