Airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 plays a critical role in spreading COVID-19. To protect public health, we designed and fabricated electrospun nanofibrous air filters that hold promise for applications in personal protective equipment (PPE) and the indoor environment. Due to ultrafine nanofibers (∼300 nm), the electrospun air filters had a much smaller pore size in comparison to the surgical mask and cloth masks (a couple of micrometers versus tens to hundreds of micrometers). A coronavirus strain served as a SARS-CoV-2 surrogate and was used to generate aerosols for filtration efficiency tests, which can better represent SARS-CoV-2 in comparison to other agents used for aerosol generation in previous studies. The electrospun air filters showed excellent performance by capturing up to 99.9% of coronavirus aerosols, which outperformed many commercial face masks. In addition, we observed that the same electrospun air filter or face mask removed NaCl aerosols equivalently or less effectively in comparison to the coronavirus aerosols when both aerosols were generated from the same system. Our work paves a new avenue for advancing air filtration by developing electrospun nanofibrous air filters for controlling SARS-CoV-2 airborne transmission.

Understanding the transformation of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) is essential to assess nanomaterial robustness and environmental risks. Using an integrated experimental and simulation approach, our work has demonstrated that the photoinduced hole (h+) on g-C3N4 nanosheets significantly enhances nanomaterial decomposition under •OH attack. Two g-C3N4 nanosheet samples D and M2 were synthesized, among which M2 had more pores, defects, and edges, and they were subjected to treatments with •OH alone and both •OH and h+. Both D and M2 were oxidized and released nitrate and soluble organic fragments, and M2 was more susceptible to oxidation. Particularly, h+ increased the nitrate release rate by 3.37–6.33 times even though the steady-state concentration of •OH was similar. Molecular simulations highlighted that •OH only attacked a limited number of edge-site heptazines on g-C3N4 nanosheets and resulted in peripheral etching and slow degradation, whereas h+ decreased the activation energy barrier of C–N bond breaking between heptazines, shifted the degradation pathway to bulk fragmentation, and thus led to much faster degradation. This discovery not only sheds light on the unique environmental transformation of emerging photoreactive nanomaterials but also provides guidelines for designing robust nanomaterials for engineering applications.

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Biofilms are a cluster of bacteria embedded in extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) that contain a complex composition of polysaccharides, proteins, and extracellular DNA (eDNA). Desirable mechanical properties of the biofilms are critical for their survival, propagation, and dispersal, and the response of mechanical properties to different treatment conditions also sheds light on biofilm control and eradication in vivo and on engineering surfaces. However, it is challenging yet important to interrogate mechanical behaviors of biofilms with a high spatial resolution because biofilms are very heterogeneous. Moreover, biofilms are viscoelastic, and their time-dependent mechanical behavior is difficult to capture. Herein, we developed a powerful technique that combines the high spatial resolution of the atomic force microscope (AFM) with a rigorous history-dependent viscoelastic analysis to deliver highly spatial-localized biofilm properties within a wide time-frequency window. By exploiting the use of static force spectroscopy in combination with an appropriate viscoelastic framework, we highlight the intensive amount of time-dependent information experimentally available that has been largely overlooked. It is shown that this technique provides a detailed nanorheological signature of the biofilms even at the single-cell level. We share the computational routines that would allow any user to perform the analysis from experimental raw data. The detailed localization of mechanical properties in space and in time-frequency domain provides insights on the understanding of biofilm stability, cohesiveness, dispersal, and control.

Pathogenic biofilms raise significant health and economic concerns, because these bacteria are persistent and can lead to long-term infections in vivo and surface contamination in healthcare and industrial facilities or devices. Compared with conventional antimicrobial strategies, photocatalysis holds promise for biofilm control because of its broad-spectrum effectiveness under ambient conditions, low cost, easy operation, and reduced maintenance. In this study, we investigated the performance and mechanism of Staphylococcus epidermidis biofilm control and eradication on the surface of an innovative photocatalyst, graphitic carbon nitride (g-C 3 N 4 ), under visible-light irradiation, which overcame the need for ultraviolet light for many current photocatalysts (e.g., titanium dioxide (TiO 2 )). Optical coherence tomography and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) suggested that g-C 3 N 4 coupons inhibited biofilm development and eradicated mature biofilms under the irradiation of white light-emitting diodes. Biofilm inactivation was observed occurring from the surface toward the center of the biofilms, suggesting that the diffusion of reactive species into the biofilms played a key role. By taking advantage of scanning electron microscopy, CLSM, and atomic force microscopy for biofilm morphology, composition, and mechanical property characterization, we demonstrated that photocatalysis destroyed the integrated and cohesive structure of biofilms and facilitated biofilm eradication by removing the extracellular polymeric substances. Moreover, reactive oxygen species generated during g-C 3 N 4 photocatalysis were quantified via reactions with radical probes and 1 O 2 was believed to be responsible for biofilm control and removal. Our work highlights the promise of using g-C 3 N 4 for a broad range of antimicrobial applications, especially for the eradication of persistent biofilms under visible-light irradiation, including photodynamic therapy, environmental remediation, food-industry applications, and self-cleaning surface development.

Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) is a promising visible-light-responsive photocatalyst for sustainable water purification.

To address the challenge of the airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2, photosensitized electrospun nanofibrous membranes were fabricated to effectively capture and inactivate coronavirus aerosols. With an ultrafine fiber diameter (∼200 nm) and a small pore size (∼1.5 μm), optimized membranes caught 99.2% of the aerosols of the murine hepatitis virus A59 (MHV-A59), a coronavirus surrogate for SARS-CoV-2. In addition, rose bengal was used as the photosensitizer for membranes because of its excellent reactivity in generating virucidal singlet oxygen, and the membranes rapidly inactivated 97.1% of MHV-A59 in virus-laden droplets only after 15 min irradiation of simulated reading light. Singlet oxygen damaged the virus genome and impaired virus binding to host cells, which elucidated the mechanism of disinfection at a molecular level. Membrane robustness was also evaluated, and in general, the performance of virus filtration and disinfection was maintained in artificial saliva and for long-term use. Only sunlight exposure photobleached membranes, reduced singlet oxygen production, and compromised the performance of virus disinfection. In summary, photosensitized electrospun nanofibrous membranes have been developed to capture and kill airborne environmental pathogens under ambient conditions, and they hold promise for broad applications as personal protective equipment and indoor air filters.

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