Coronavirus outbreak: IIT, AIIMS techies develop device to disinfect cities
In light of growing coronavirus cases in India, a team of IIT Kharagpur and AIIMS alumni has developed a device that can disinfect entire cities with ease. The novel tech, dubbed AirLens Minus Corona, relies solely on water and electrical energy and makes an ideal solution to kill the deadly pathogen from surfaces in large public spaces. Here's all about it.
AirLens Minus Corona: What is it?
Developed by techie-duo Sebayan Saha & Shashi Ranjan, AirLens Minus Corona looks like a standard cooler modified to spray electrified water droplets. They say when these highly charged or ionized droplets land on a surface, they go through catalysis and oxidize the protein structure of any virus, microbes, or micro-organisms sitting there from before, killing them effectively.
All dangerous pathogens, including coronavirus, can be killed
Saha emphasizes that the electro-spraying technique is as good as using an alcohol-based sanitizer in large spaces and has been utilized in countries like Japan and Vietnam to fight the threat of coronavirus. He added that a five-year-old Harvard University study has already shown that the combination of electrical energy and water could be used to weed out dangerous disease-causing microbes like E. Coli.
Most potent antimicrobial tool, says Ranjan
"Oxidation is one of the most potent antimicrobial tools which can sterilize the entire city. Our technology uses an optimal combination of electric energy and water atomization techniques to induce a charge on water droplets while creating the most potent oxidative entities...[to] kill the coronavirus."
Country-wide disinfection possible with this device
According to the techies, if the required resources - water and electrical energy - are provided in the optimum amount, their technology can be rolled out to disinfect cities, possibly even the whole country. It can easily go to hospitals, bus stops, railway stations, shopping malls and other public places to sterilize the surfaces, which may cause the spread of the coronavirus.
Ideal sanitizer for large spaces, says Saha
"Alcohols are known to inactivate viruses...But the alcohol-based hand sanitizer is useful for individuals or for sanitizing surfaces at a smaller scale (home, offices, etc.) in the fight against coronavirus" - a major problem that, Saha says, the electro-spray can tackle easily.
