Airborne virus capture and inactivation by an electrostatic particle collector.

Airborne virus capture and inactivation were studied in an electrostatic precipitator (ESP) at applied voltages from -10 to +10 kV using aerosolized bacteriophages T3 and MS2. For each charging scenario, samples were collected from the effluent air stream and assayed for viable phages using plaque assays and for nucleic acids using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assays. At higher applied voltages, more virus particles were captured from air with maximum log reductions of 6.