A wide variety of personal belongings including medical equipment, PPE, apparels among others can be sterilised against coronavirus
A team of researchers at IIT Roorkee led by Prof Soumitra Satapathi, Laboratory of Integrated Nanophotonics and Biomaterials, has developed a disinfection box that can be used for sterilising a wide variety of personal belongings including medical equipment, PPE, apparels among others, against coronavirus.
Termed as the ‘Unisaviour’ box, it comprises a metal coated with specially- designed highly reflective geometry to allow the calibrated passage of UVC light to disinfect personal belongings. The box has an internal coating of indigenously- developed metal oxide along with herbal anti-bacterial and anti-viral layers to prevent the growth of microorganisms when UVC light is not in use. The user-friendly device comes with an additional safety switch for UVC light.
“The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the significance of maintaining overall hygiene to reduce the transmission risk of the disease. The sterilizing system will aid the disinfection of various personal belongings and can be easily deployed at public places such as malls, cinema halls among others to maintain the highest standard of hygiene,” said Prof Satapathi, Associate Professor of Physics, IIT Roorkee.
The ‘Unisaviour’ box is equipped with an Arduino-programmed system to control the time exposure and intensity of UVC light, that aids in the sterilisation of various personal belongings.
“As the world strives to return to normalcy amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, this device will be a step forward in ensuring safety. It is easy to use and will be useful for disinfecting items in public places” said Prof Ajit K Chaturvedi, Director, IIT Roorkee.
Other team members in this research included Prathul Nath, Naveen Kumar Tailor, Tejasvini Sharma, Anshuthe Kumar from the Dept of Physics and Neeladri Singh Das and Partha Roy from Department of Biotechnology.
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