Forum for Science, Industry and Business
Sponsored by:     Siemens     3M    n-tv
Search our Site:

Topic (optional):

 

Home Reports Life Sciences Content

Device detects, traps and deactivates airborne viruses and bacteria using ’smart’ catalysts

next article
08.03.2004

 


Anthrax is nasty stuff. An environmental engineer at WUSTL uses smart catalysts in his device that can detect the airborne presence of anthrax and other bioweapons and disable it.


An environmental engineer at Washington University in St. Louis with his doctoral student has patented a device for trapping and deactivating microbial particles. The work is promising in the war on terrorism for deactivating airborne bioagents and bioweapons such as the smallpox virus, anthrax and ricin, and also in routine indoor air ventilation applications such as in buildings and aircraft cabins.

Pratim Biswas, Ph.D.,Stifel & Quinette Jens Professor of Environmental Engineering Sciences and director of Environmental Engineering Sciences at Washington University, combines an electrical field with soft X-rays and smart catalysts to capture and destroy bioagents such as the smallpox virus.

"When the aerosol particles come into the device they are charged and trapped in an electrical field," Biswas explained. "Any organic material is oxidized, so it completely deactivates the organism."

Biswas noted that conventional corona systems do not charge and effectively trap nanometer-sized particles, such as viruses. But his invention combines soft x-rays with a conventional corona that has been proven to be very effective at charging and trapping particles in a range of sizes.

On the walls of the device, Biswas has coated nanoparticles that catalyze the oxidation. These nanoparticles are "smart" objects that are turned "on" and "off" by irradiation.

"This smart catalyst is unique," Biswas said. "If we should encounter some organism that is very difficult to degrade, I can engineer my smart catalysts to function so that they will oxidize those molecules."

Biswas and his collaborators have tested the device using non-potent polio virus and have achieved 99.9999 percent efficiency. He currently is collaborating with the Midwest Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases Research (MRCE) and his Washington University colleague, Lars Angenent, to identify the mechanistic pathways of biomolecular degradation.

Washington University in St. Louis has a core group of six faculty who are mainstream aerosol researchers, and work on different aspects related to Aerosol Science and Engineering. This nationally and internationally recognized group of scientists, one of the largest groups in U. S. universities, studies the synthesis and environmental impact of nanoparticles, atmospheric pollution at the regional and global scales, and develops the next generation of instrumentation for detection of these particles, as well as several environmental nanotechnology applications.

Biswas was part of a special colloquium, "Research in Aerosols and Air Quality," held March 2, 2004, at Washington University. The event was organized under the university’s Sesquicentennial Environmental Initiative wherein world-renowned researchers reported the latest findings in the aerosol engineering field. The colloquium, was part of a series of environmental dialogues held in honor of Washington University’s 150th anniversary.

Tony Fitzpatrick | Source: WUSTL
Further information: news-info.wustl.edu/tips/page/normal/726.html

next article

More articles from Life Sciences:

nachricht Study details genes that control whether tumors adapt or die when faced with p53 activating drugs
23.05.2013 | University of Colorado Denver

nachricht Scientists announce Top 10 New Species
23.05.2013 | Arizona State University

All articles from Life Sciences >>>
The most recent press releases about innovation >>>

Overview of the latest five Focus news of the innovations-report:
In the focus: Going live – immune cell activation in multiple sclerosis

New indicator molecules visualise the activation of auto-aggressive T cells in the body as never before

Biological processes are generally based on events at the molecular and cellular level. To understand what happens in the course of infections, diseases or normal bodily functions, scientists would need to examine individual cells and their activity directly in the tissue.

The development of new microscopes and fluorescent dyes in ...

In the focus: Soft Matter Offers New Ways to Study How Materials Arrange

A fried breakfast food popular in Spain provided the inspiration for the development of doughnut-shaped droplets that may provide scientists with a new approach for studying fundamental issues in physics, mathematics and materials.

The doughnut-shaped droplets, a shape known as toroidal, are formed from two dissimilar liquids using a simple rotating stage and an injection needle. About a millimeter in overall size, the droplets are produced individually, their shapes maintained by a surrounding springy material made of polymers.

Droplets in this toroidal shape made ...

In the focus: Functional films for the displays of the future

Frauhofer FEP will present a novel roll-to-roll manufacturing process for high-barriers and functional films for flexible displays at the SID DisplayWeek 2013 in Vancouver – the International showcase for the Display Industry.

Displays that are flexible and paper thin at the same time?! What might still seem like science fiction will be a major topic at the SID Display Week 2013 that currently takes place in Vancouver in Canada.

High manufacturing cost and a short lifetime are still a major obstacle on ...

In the focus: A New Type of Laser

University of Würzburg physicists have succeeded in creating a new type of laser.

Its operation principle is completely different from conventional devices, which opens up the possibility of a significantly reduced energy input requirement. The researchers report their work in the current issue of Nature.

It also emits light the waves of which are in phase with one another: the polariton laser, developed ...

In the focus: Competition in the Quantum World

Innsbruck physicists led by Rainer Blatt and Peter Zoller experimentally gained a deep insight into the nature of quantum mechanical phase transitions.

They are the first scientists that simulated the competition between two rival dynamical processes at a novel type of transition between two quantum mechanical orders. They have published the results of their work in the journal Nature Physics.

“When water boils, its molecules are released as vapor. We call this ...

All Focus news of the innovations-report >>>

B2B Search

Product / Service
Company / Organisation

Latest News

Detecting mirror molecules

23.05.2013 | Physics and Astronomy

Study shows that insomnia may cause dysfunction in emotional brain circuitry

23.05.2013 | Health and Medicine

More emphasis needed on recycling and reuse of Li-ion batteries

23.05.2013 | Ecology, The Environment and Conservation

VideoLinks
B2B-VideoLinks
More VideoLinks >>>

Event News

ITS European Congress: Traffic Warning and Information Platform

17.05.2013 | Event News

European Research Infrastructures help to solve air quality issues

15.05.2013 | Event News

The Problem of the European Unemployment

08.05.2013 | Event News