R. Ozdemir
framergy, Inc.,
United States
Keywords: metal-organic frameworks, Coronavirus disease, COVID-19, coating
Summary:
This innovation relates to the prevention of the spread of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) through airborne droplet isolation and its destruction via a novel class of nanostructured catalyst. COVID-19 has entered our greater society, and impacted both our micro frontier and macro one. Every technology company is seeking solutions to help in the war on this non-visible threat. In addition to vaccine development, the reality of our new world order means that the virus must be attended to in our surroundings as well. This innovative technology effort advances a novel chemistry which has been developing to be an indirect affront to the root of its spread. framergy has developed a metal-organic framework (MOFs) based respiratory droplet adsorption coating, which, when activated, photocatalytically destroys COVID-19 and other airborne contaminants. This MOF technology is already being used to improve the energy efficiency of heating, ventilation & air conditioning (HVAC) systems, which have been shown to be a major concentrator of the virus. The chemistry as a self-cleaning surface coating can be rapidly applied to any negative air pressure devices, such as masks (respirators & surgical), and air purifiers, making cluster indoor locations safer for inhabitants and workers. Specifically, this innovation couples the incredible water adsorptive capacity of nanostructured titanium metal organic frameworks with their photocatalytic oxidation capability to destroy COVID-19 in situ to make indoor spaces safer. framergy's work addresses the COVID-19 transmission challenges by providing a novel decontamination solution which can be integrated into industrial and residential HVAC systems. The project team has advanced a coordination polymer-based chemistry which can render COVID-19 inactive through microdroplet isolation and photocatalytic decontamination. Based on their highly tunable priorities and catalytic properties, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) constitute the only effective solution which can both capture COVID-19 transmitting, micro air droplets and treat them for their viral content. The test results have showed conclusively that that MOFs could photocatalytically render COVID-19 inactive. The high valence titanium-based MOFs can address the chemical stability challenges of MOFs, which can eliminate the technical hurdles associated with long term stability, cyclic harvesting of micro air droplets at low relative humidity and their integration into existing heating, ventilation & air conditioning systems. The MOFs development and self-cleaning surface coating works have been accomplished by framergy and the COVID-19 inactivation tests have been conducted by University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC).