A component capable of inactivating airborne aerosols through a plasma filter has been developed, raising expectations that it will help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and prevent the spread of the disease.

The research team led by Dr. Seunghoon Lee of the Nano-Bio Convergence Laboratory at the Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS, President Jeong-Hwan Lee), a government-funded research institute under the Ministry of Science and ICT, announced on the 7th that it had successfully developed a plasma air conditioning technology that can inactivate the COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) virus aerosol in real time.

This technology is significant in that it verified real-time quarantine performance in aerosol form, where the COVID-19 virus primarily spreads.

The plasma filter developed by the research team is a component that uses dielectric filter discharge technology to inactivate the COVID-19 virus aerosol with oxygen-active species and an electric field.

The research team confirmed that the COVID-19 virus was inactivated by more than 99.8% immediately after passing through the plasma filter.

Additionally, plasma filters can be applied to air purifiers and building air conditioning systems without emitting ozone (O3) by utilizing catalytic materials.

In addition, the research team By installing an ozone removal catalyst at the rear end of the plasma filter and maintaining the concentration of emitted ozone below the regulatory level, the problem of ozone emission, which was a weakness of plasma technology, was solved and various regulations related to ozone emission were satisfied.

Until now, experiments to inactivate the COVID-19 virus have been conducted in liquid form in culture dishes, not in aerosol form.

Due to the risks of experiments using aerosols of high-risk viruses, direct verification of the inactivation of the COVID-19 virus in aerosols is extremely rare. For this reason, verification of quarantine performance using aerosols has been continuously required, as actual situations and experimental conditions are different.

The research team, in collaboration with the Clinical Research Institute of Masan National Hospital (Director Seung-gyu Park), developed an experimental device that can directly evaluate the quarantine performance by spraying aerosols of COVID-19 virus culture solution, and is currently submitting the results of research related to the performance verification of the applied plasma filter to an international academic journal.

If this technology is applied to air purifiers and building air conditioning units installed in medical settings and multi-use facilities, it is expected to be of great help in preventing the spread of infectious diseases in the future.

Senior Researcher Seunghoon Lee, the principal investigator, said, “While the development of various quarantine material components is important, it is true that there is a lack of empirical research utilizing highly pathogenic pathogen aerosols.” He added, “Based on the inactivation data of the COVID-19 virus aerosol obtained in this study, we plan to conduct additional follow-up research to derive the initial time and optimal layout required for quarantine of multi-use facilities through a study predicting the removal performance of bioaerosols in a virtual space using a digital twin.”

This research was conducted as a major project of the Korea Institute of Materials Science under the Ministry of Science and ICT, and the research team completed two technology transfers related to plasma air purifiers and air conditioning components last year.

In particular, an air sterilizing purifier featuring film-type plasma filter technology is scheduled for release in February of this year after completing group certification and COVID-19 inactivation testing. The product was previously exhibited at the Korea Science and Technology Fair held at KINTEX in Ilsan in December of last year.