Processes and Methods for Creating New Types of Personal Protective Gears

Ocasio, Mason C.; Ryan, Timothy R.; Rosenfeld, Jordan L.; Seeto, Benjamin T.; Moore, Kevin P.

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Processes and Methods for Creating New Types of Personal Protective Gears

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In light of the global pandemic caused by Covid-19, personal protection from airborne threats such as viruses and bacteria has become desired more than ever before. Our Major Qualifying Project (MQP) group has recognized this demand with the guidance of our advisor, Prof. Balaji Panchapakesan. Identifying this problem, the focus of the project became focused on creating a piece of personal equipment that could effectively protect individuals from these threats. Based on our research, we also believed this to be an excellent opportunity to explore a material called carbon nanotubes, specifically single walled for their favorable properties. Upon further discussion, it was determined that the scope of our project was to design and develop a piece of personal protective equipment that incorporates single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) as the effective filter. Viruses are particles that contain genetic material (RNA or DNA) with a protein coating. To replicate, they require living cells and destroy them once finished. If cells are infected, it can lead to disease and pose a great threat to humans and other living beings. Viruses can be spread through the air or through contact of surfaces. The coronaviruses are about 0.1µm in size while other viruses can vary from 0.042 to 0.65 µm. These small particles can enter the human body through the eyes, nose, and mouth. To stop this, personal protective equipment such as masks and respirators are the most effective at keeping these dangerous particles from entering the most susceptible areas of our body. Research has found that carbon nanotube filters are greater than 95% effective at stopping particles of that size since their pore size is approximately 600 nm in diameter. Carbon nanotubes are also great conductors of heat and electricity and maintain their structure under UV light making sanitization a possibility. In order to design this personal protective equipment, SWCNTs needed to be synthesized. To achieve this, our team performed a simple vacuum filtration technique to deposit SWCNT suspended in isopropyl alcohol onto a PTFE membrane. This simple process was adjusted and modified several times throughout the duration of the project in efforts to successfully synthesize the films. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful in synthesizing the films. This is a procedure that has not been perfected yet and in hopes that someone will continue our work, we have added some suggestions for future work in this paper. Several concepts of design were finalized and designed upon including nose pieces and integrated face masks. Since masks require a level of flexibility and CNT filters need to maintain rigidity, we decided on a nose piece the direction of design. Taking into account how the design would impact the user’s experience, we concern ourselves with decisions such as material selection, number of uses to withstand, the number of parts in its final assembly and how they are to be secured to the user. Thermoplastic polyurethane was decided as the ideal material for its elastic nature to ensure comfort of the user while being durable and easy to manufacture. Integrating the CNT filter was a design challenge that we believed to be crucial in the success of this project. Once in use, the CNT filter would be exposed to constant oscillating force produced from the user’s breath. We explored heat bonding and adhesives as viable options and suggested further testing on both method’s tensile strength. Finally, although we were unsuccessful in synthesizing the CNT filters, we wanted to address potential areas of improvement for future work not only in the CNT synthesis process but in other aspects of the project as well. Modifications to our synthesis process were suggested in addition to proposing other methods such as a CN-Parylene membrane fabrication process. Had we successfully created the filters, we would have tested them and classified them. Some of the tests included UV light/heat/electricity exposure, gold particle filtration, and live virus filtration. We also believe that if this product is to be adopted by the public, they will need to be manufactured on a large scale. We suggest investigating the feasibility of injection molding.

This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

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