Developing surfactant-based disinfectants and cleansers for environment contaminated with Covid-19

新冠肺炎疫情给全球带来重大挑战。Covid-19传播的一个主要途径是接触带有病毒的表面或物体，然后触摸自己的嘴、鼻子或眼睛。最近发现，这种病毒可以传播到水中，造成污染，并可能通过水系统传播。各种消毒剂已被应用于清洁和消毒表面，迫切需要找到对病毒污染的水进行净化的解决方案。然而，目前的消毒剂有一些缺点，包括对人体皮肤有刺激性、有火灾危险、爆炸风险和产生二次危险品。迫切需要开发更环保和安全的替代品来消毒和清洁受病毒污染的表面和水系统。这个为期一年的项目旨在全面了解和研究表面活性剂对病毒在水环境和各种表面上的分布、生存和活性的影响。这项研究将有助于更好地理解表面活性剂对病毒污染系统的消毒和清洁，并有助于更好地设计和开发环保型表面活性剂消毒剂和清洁剂。

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused significant challenges all over the world. One major pathway of Covid-19 transmission is through touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching one's mouth, nose or eyes. It has been recently discovered that this virus can transmit into water causing contamination and possible spread through water systems. Various disinfectants have been applied to cleaning and disinfecting the surfaces and there is an urgent need to find solutions for decontaminating virus-contaminated water. However, the current disinfectants have drawbacks including being irritating to human skin, risk of fire hazards, explosion, and generating secondary hazardous products. It is highly desirable to develop more environmentally friendly and secure alternatives for disinfecting and cleaning virus-contaminated surfaces and water systems. This one year project aims to comprehensively understand and investigate the effect of surfactants on the distribution, survival, and activity of the virus in the aqueous environment and on the various surfaces. This research will provide a better understanding of disinfecting and cleaning virus-contaminated systems achieved by surfactants and could help better design and develop environmentally friendly surfactant-based disinfectants and cleansers.