Our current P42 project (Project 5) deals with natural and recycled fiber materials for filtration targeted toward soil remediation. This supplemental funding request (for Project 5) directly addresses the needs of the growing COVID-19 pandemic, with the base theme of natural fibers as filtration media for personal protection. The rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic exponentially increases the risk to the P42 community not only from the soil/air contamination with particulate matter and heavy metals, but now the added risk of the virus. Providing low cost reusable and biodegradable personal protection equipment (PPE) solutions to the community will be of immense value. One of the most needed items are PPE masks not only for the health care provider but the public at large. There is growing use of masks of all make ups and configurations, and their use is going to multiply exponentially. The various federal briefings have emphasized the need for a mask for every person, and over 500 million masks could be worn on daily basis world-wide. Hundreds of millions of N95 masks are in production and use worldwide. For the most part, these are disposed after single use (2-3 times at the most) which will result in gigantic quantities in landfill. This will result in massive detrimental environmental implications for years to come. In this project we propose innovative yet practical science to develop natural fiber (biobased) biodegradable filter materials that will meet the NIOSH standards for N95 filter efficiency (FE). The biobased solution is based on sub-micron regenerative cellulose natural fibers (RNCF) and small amounts of textile grade carbon fiber (TCF) that will be designed for turboelectric charging that impart the interaction to capture and kill the virus(es). The RNCF based filter material will be equally effective in lieu (or complement) of the synthetic polypropylene (PP) based 2 µm diameter, 50 grams per square meter (gsm) filter materials (not biodegradable) currently used in the N95 masks. The work will deliver a tangible full concept to product solution for implementing the RNCF material in reusable masks that the team is already developing. The entire solution will be environmentally friendly, safe and will meet NIOSH standards. The materials developed in this project will be tested against the NIOSH 42 CFR 84 for a minimum 95% filtration efficiency against solid and liquid aerosols that do not contain oil. The product will be disseminated to the P42 ecosystem including the health care providers and the community. The feedback from these groups will be sought in the form of surveys, questionnaires, training and the data will be statistically analyzed and become a part of the main P42 grant. The project is collaborative between The University of Tennessee (UT), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), University of Alabama at Birmingham and the P42 community.

PROJECT NARRATIVE: Hundreds of millions of N95 masks are in production and use worldwide which are disposed after a single use (2-3 times at the most) and will result in gigantic quantities of medical waste in landfills. In this project we propose to develop innovative biobased biodegradable filter materials which will meet NIOSH N95 standards along with reusable biofriendly mask housings. Our team’s expertise in advanced materials and manufacturing forms the basis for the proposed work.