Real-Time Detection in Air

Pillar 3
Resilient/adaptive built environments

Need

COVID-19 commonly spreads via transmission through the air in indoor spaces, likely through aerosol droplets, and possibly through airborne virus particles. These smaller airborne particles represent a significant risk because they can build up in indoor spaces and are less affected by social distancing and masks.  Increasing ventilation and filtration of circulated air are essential for combatting these airborne particles. However, there are not currently any real-time methods to monitor for the presence of viral particles in the air – a critical challenge that needs to be met to restore public confidence in occupation of indoor spaces including classrooms, hotel rooms, and airplane cabins.

Proposed Solution

Ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) is already commonly used in airport screening to detect explosives or drugs of abuse in luggage or on hand swabs. We propose that small, relatively inexpensive IMS devices could be installed in ventilation systems or inside rooms to continuously sample the air and monitor for signatures of SARS-CoV-2. Complementing room-scale sensors, lens-free holographic optical sensors are cost-effective, compact, and sensitive enough to detect individual nanoparticles. These sensors do not have the specificity of IMS but are small enough to be worn or held in the hand while detecting the concentration and sizes of virus particulate matter in the air. Thus, they can serve as a complementary sensing tool to IMS for benchmarking the overall quality of air filtration in an individual’s personal space.

Statement of Work

UArizona researchers are developing complementary sensing technologies for continuous monitoring of indoor air for SARS-CoV-2 viral particles, including unique IMS devices and “lens-free” holographic optical sensors. The IMS sensors will provide sensitivities and selectivity not currently available.