Self-Cleaning Microwave-Responsive MXene-Coated Filtration System for Enhanced Airborne Virus Disinfection

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the urgent demand for advanced air disinfection technologies. Traditional air filters primarily capture large airborne particles but are ineffective against submicrometer aerosols. This study introduces a microwave-enabled catalytic air filtration system using Ti₃C₂T_x MXene-coated polypropylene filters to enhance air disinfection. With only 0.05 mg·cm^–2 of MXene coating, the filter surface temperature rapidly reached 104 °C within 3 s under 125 W microwave irradiation. Such surface heating led to a significantly higher log removal value (LRV) (1.86 ± 0.47) of the MS2 bacteriophage in the synthetic bioaerosol with an initial concentration of 10⁵ PFU·mL^–1, compared to 0.24–0.38 achieved by the pristine filter or the MXene-coated filter without microwave irradiation. Additionally, the filter surface exhibited promising self-cleaning behavior, as indicated by the stable viral inactivation and removal efficiency even in high-humidity environments. This innovative air filtration technology shows promising potential for preventing airborne pathogen transmission and protecting public health across diverse environmental conditions.