Characterization of nano-bubble enabled disinfection system for COVID-19

迫切需要开发大面积公共场所和高接触表面的消毒技术，以便在新冠肺炎大流行期间能够建立安全的社区。在世界各地，大规模的消毒工作正在变得司空见惯，目前这是通过派遣卡车向整个城市喷洒漂白剂来完成的，因为该国正在努力控制冠状病毒。然而，大量喷洒漂白剂和工业清洁剂引发了许多令人担忧的问题，涉及环境和额外的健康后果。因此，我们需要环境友好但又有效的替代消毒方案。由Mitra博士领导的滑铁卢研究小组将与Econse合作，努力实现这一重要目标，将臭氧纳米气泡作为一种有效的解决方案，利用臭氧气体固有的消毒剂特性对大片功能区进行消毒。这将包括使用先进的显微镜对由Econse内部开发的OZOCAV系统产生的纳米气泡的大小和分布进行表征，研究纳米气泡与病毒感染表面的动态相互作用，最后优化臭氧和水的混合物的比例，以获得所需的表面细菌和病毒的清除率。一旦成功实现，这一创新的消毒解决方案将推动行业合作伙伴向包括城市、市政当局、商业建筑、医疗设施和其他在内的大量最终用户营销他们的产品。这将有助于应对与新冠肺炎通过表面传播相关的挑战，当然也将在我们度过这一全球大流行的第二和第三波之际创造更安全的操作环境，从而拯救全球数百万人的生命。

There is an urgent need to develop technology for disinfection of large public areas and high-touch surfaces to enable safe communities during COVID-19 pandemic. Around the world, large-scale disinfection efforts are becoming commonplace, which is currently done by sending trucks to spray bleach on entire cities as the country struggles to contain the coronavirus. However, the mass spraying of bleach and industrial cleaning agents raises many troubling questions about environmental and additional health consequences. Therefore, we need alternate environmental friendly yet effective disinfection solutions. The Waterloo research team led by Dr. Mitra in collaboration with Econse will work towards this important goal by bringing ozonized nano-bubbles as an effective solution to disinfect large functional areas by utilizing the inherent disinfectant property of ozone gas. This would involve characterizing the nano-bubbles generated by the OZOCAV system, developed in-house by Econse, in terms of their size and distribution using advanced microscopy, studying the dynamic interaction of nano-bubbles with viral infected surfaces and finally optimizing the ratio of ozone and water mixture to obtain the desired removal rate of bacteria and viruses from surfaces. Once successfully achieved, this innovative disinfection solution will propel the industry partner in marketing their product to large number of end-users, which includes cities, municipalities, commercial buildings, medical facilities and others. This would help to tackle the challenges related to transmission of COVID-19 through surfaces and certainly would create safer operating environment as we move through the second and the third wave of this global pandemic, thereby saving millions of lives worldwide.