Shown here is Atomic Oxygen (O) created in a lab by separating Oxygen (O₂), which occurs naturally in Earth’s atmosphere, into O, known as Atomic Oxygen (containing only one atom of Oxygen) (Image from NASA)

NASA Glenn Research Center has embarked upon an effort to decontaminate personal protective equipment (PPE), for health personnel, in the war on COVID-19.

Atomic Oxygen

The method of using Atomic oxygen, an elemental form of oxygen that does not exist in Earth's atmosphere, is at the heart of NASA’s COVID-19 research efforts. This all began, years ago, when NASA performed extensive research into the damage to satellites caused by atomic oxygen in low Earth orbit, which had also led to a new way to restore damaged artwork.

NASA has a team of researchers who were able to use this method to benefit the health workers, the public, or nation and the world. Atomic oxygen decontamination is a viable method presently being evaluated for decontamination. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been reviewing another method as well, peracetic acid, which has proven to work for five cycles of decontamination. The FDA is reviewing this method for emergency use authorization. Figure 1.

Figure 1 N95 masks are shown here being disinfected in a decontamination room, at University Hospitals (UH), using the peracetic acid method (Image from University Hospitals on NASA’s website)

Prevalent in low-Earth orbit, these single oxygen atoms can remove organic materials that can’t easily be cleaned by other methods. On Earth, NASA creates atomic oxygen by adding ozone (O₃) in a chamber and heating it. The ozone will then decompose into atomic oxygen (O); it can then kill organisms such as viruses. Ozone diffuses very well through and around objects; this makes it promising for sterilizing inside an N95 mask filter or loosely stacked masks, and may possibly sterilize without leaving any residue. The process can be scaled up to treat multiple batches of PPE or can be made portable for small hospitals in rural areas. No liquid chemicals are needed, only oxygen and nitrogen gas.

Glenn research engineers, along with physicists from the Science Applications International Corp (SAIC), have now developed a process and hardware to decontaminate medical masks using atomic oxygen. Testing is ongoing to ensure that multiple decontamination cycles will not damage the PPE.

An independent lab has also recently performed filtration tests which have demonstrated that N95 masks had filtered well and passed acceptance testing after 20 minutes of atomic oxygen treatment. In early May, NASA provided a prototype for UH to test on N95 masks. Early results confirm that the method deactivates the virus; continued testing will determine the minimum ozone concentration and exposure time needed for disinfection.

Peracetic Acid

Peracetic acid is a chemical disinfectant typically used in the health care, food, and water treatment industries and is one other option for decontaminating PPE.  This disinfecting method will kill 99.9999% of viruses as well as highly resistant bacterial spores from contaminated N95 masks with no detectable loss of filtration, structural integrity, or strap elasticity for up to five decontamination cycles. The Department of Medicine at UH Cleveland Medical Center believes that the peracetic acid disinfection method is the quickest method for mass-decontamination of N95 respirators presently available.

Stay tuned for more on this research study which will bring space research to Earth in order to help stem the Corona virus and protect our brave healthcare provider heroes.