IIT Roorkee researchers have come up with a new disinfection box that could help prevent the spread of COVID-19. It can be used to sterilize personal belongings, medical equipment, PPEs, and apparel among other things.
“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 sterilizing a wide variety of personal belongings including medical equipment, Personal Protection Equipment, apparels among others, against coronavirus,” IIT Roorkee said in a statement.
The ‘Unisaviour’ box comprises a metal coated with specially-designed highly reflective geometry to allow the calibrated passage of UVC light to disinfect items. In addition, it has an internal coating of indigenously-developed metal oxide along with herbal anti-bacterial and anti-viral layers. This would 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 statement further said. Moreover, the box is equipped with an Arduino-programmed system to control the time exposure and intensity of UVC light which will aid in the sterilization.
Prof. Ajit K Chaturvedi, Director, IIT Roorkee, said that this device would be a step forward in ensuring safety as the world strives to return to normalcy amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
As per the statement, team members in this research include Ph.D. students, Prathul Nath, Naveen Kumar Tailor, Tejasvini Sharma, Anshu Kumar from Dept of Physics and Neeladri Singh Das and Prof. Partha Roy from Department of Biotechnology. The invention has been filed for a patent.