Effects of surface charge and environmental factors on the electrostatic interaction of fiber with virus-like particle: A case of coronavirus

We propose a theoretical model to elucidate intermolecular electrostatic interactions between a virus and a substrate. Our model treats the virus as a homogeneous particle having surface charge and the polymer fiber of the respirator as a charged plane. Electric potentials surrounding the virus and fiber are influenced by the surface charge distribution of the virus. We use Poisson–Boltzmann equations to calculate electric potentials. Then, Derjaguin’s approximation and a linear superposition of the potential function are extended to determine the electrostatic force. In this work, we apply this model for coronavirus or SARS-CoV-2 case and numerical results quantitatively agree with prior simulation. We find that the influence of fiber’s potential on the surface charge of the virus is important and is considered in interaction calculations to obtain better accuracy. The electrostatic interaction significantly decays with increasing separation distance, and this curve becomes steeper when adding more salt. Although the interaction force increases with heating, one can observe the repulsive–attractive transition when the environment is acidic.