Antimicrobial Coating for Air Filtration Media and Application of Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation in Palliative Care Facility

Poor indoor air quality can cause adverse health impact and disease outbreak by airborne transmission particularly in healthcare facilities such as palliative care home where patients are vulnerable. As many harmful organisms can be found in air samples collected from healthcare facilities, efforts should be made to minimize airborne concentration of microorganisms and their potential health impact. The filtration technology is the most effective and economical mean for air purification and disinfection in healthcare facility. However, microbial growth on air filter poses limitations (e.g. microbial emission and secondary contamination).

An air filter with sustained antimicrobial and filtration functions was developed. A formulated antimicrobial particulate air filters is capable of 95% reduction in viable microorganisms by combining “release-killing” biocides, “contact-killing” reactive dyads and “anti-adhesion” polymers to target different cellular sites in the microorganism along different inactivation pathways. Standard HEPA filter was used to compare the mean reduction on both control and treatment end to access the effectiveness of antimicrobial particulate air filters. The aims of this study are to invent an antimicrobial coating for air filtration media, apply the invented coating to a palliative care setting and simulate the relationship between the air purifier and the indoor air quality using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The results showed that the application of antimicrobial particulate air filter in palliative care setting mitigated indoor air pollution, thus improving the residents’ health conditions and well-being.