Nanoporous Metal Foams as Efficient & Reusable Submicron Filtration Media
Nanoporous metal foams offer a new type of efficient, robust filtration media for deep submicron particuates. Check out our feasibility study published in Nano Letters 21, 2968-2974 (2021), and feature coverage by the American Chemical Society, Science, Scientific American, Physics World, ASM International, Common Home, and many news outlets.
They are robust yet lightweight, “light as a feather”. A centimeter size copper foam can support a load that’s over 15,000 times its own weight.
The foams use metallic nanowires as building blocks, with tunable microstructures, morphologies and mechanical properties.
They show comparable filtration efficiency and breathability as N95 masks for the 0.1-1.6 micron size range, but without the use of electrostatics. This is particularly relevant for COVID-19.
Here we use two foams to filter smoke. One is sufficient in capturing the smoke particles and afterwards it can be cleaned by rinsing in water and reused. At the end of their useful lifetime, they can be easily reclaimed and recycled.
The foams may be integrated with other mask designs, either as the filtration media themselves, or as inserts or cartridges for existing masks / respirators. Potentially they may also be used for air cleaning in household and vehicle air filters.
We are selected as one of the ten Phase 1 winners of the BARDA – NIOSH Mask Innovation Challenge, out of 1448 submissions.
James was selected as the Graduate First Place Winner of the 2022 AAAS Student E-Poster Competition in the Physical Sciences, for his presentation of the foam work. This competition was part of the 2022 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting. James and all other winners are recognized in the 3/25 issue of Science.
Thrilled to be selected as one of the ten Phase 2 finalists of the BARDA – NIOSH -NIST Mask Innovation Challenge. See coverage in the 5/20 issue of Science.
