Characterization of an Electrostatic-Based Air Sampler for the Capture of Airborne Norovirus

The need for an air sampler has been in demand, as airborne transmitted viruses like Norovirus, also known as the winter-vomiting disease, produces 685 million cases a year around the world1. The principal of electrostatic precipitation (ESP), although well-known for air filtration, has been recently used as a novel method for sampling for airborne viruses. The ESSA (ElectroStatic Sampler for Air) is a novel point-of-care device developed in-house for the capture of airborne virus. Two designs were created for the ESSA, that vary the needle organization; the cross design and the circular design. This project focuses on evaluating the performance of these two ESSA design for capturing airborne viruses. Based on the characterization results, the circular ESSA has the highest particle count efficiency while the cross ESSA has the best current versus voltage relationship.