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

迫切需要开发大型公共区域和高接触表面的消毒技术，以在COVID-19大流行期间实现安全的社区。在世界各地，大规模的消毒工作正在变得司空见惯，目前的做法是派遣卡车在整个城市喷洒漂白剂，因为该国正在努力遏制冠状病毒。然而，大规模喷洒漂白剂和工业清洁剂引起了许多令人不安的问题，涉及环境和其他健康后果。因此，我们需要替代的环境友好但有效的消毒解决方案。由Mitra博士领导的Waterloo研究小组与Econse合作，将通过将臭氧化纳米气泡作为一种有效的解决方案来实现这一重要目标，通过利用臭氧气体的固有消毒特性来消毒大型功能区域。这将涉及表征由Econse内部开发的OZOCAV系统产生的纳米气泡，使用先进的显微镜观察其尺寸和分布，研究纳米气泡与病毒感染表面的动态相互作用，并最终优化臭氧和水混合物的比例，以获得所需的表面细菌和病毒去除率。一旦成功实现，这种创新的消毒解决方案将推动行业合作伙伴将其产品销售给大量最终用户，包括城市，市政当局，商业建筑，医疗设施等。这将有助于应对与COVID-19通过表面传播相关的挑战，并肯定会在我们度过第二波和第三波全球大流行时创造更安全的运营环境，从而挽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.