In a new study, researchers have developed a better, faster way to decontaminate N95 masks using ultraviolet light—potentially saving thousands of the sought-after masks during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The research was conducted by a team of the University of Chicago.
The system is currently in use at the hospital at the University of Chicago, and the team is working with the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation to certify and scale it up for wider use.
Ultraviolet C, a wavelength of light with the ability to kill germs, has emerged as the preferred solution for disinfecting personal protective equipment.
But even though it is easy to deploy and widely applicable, the method is not without its drawbacks; as with any light, UV systems can cast shadows, leaving parts of surfaces in the dark.
To address this issue, the team designed and fabricated an N95 respirator decontamination cabinet, which features a UV lamp arrangement that eliminates shadowing and optimizes the dose to all surfaces of the mask.
The current setup can fully disinfect 180 masks per hour, and the inventors estimate a scaled-up, automated version could process up to 1,440 masks per hour—or more than 34,000 per day.
UChicago Medicine has been using the system to disinfect masks since the beginning of April.
Over the course of the pandemic, reprocessing could save the academic health system thousands of the hard-to-come-by masks.
The leader of the study is Peter Eng, an experimental physicist and research professor at UChicago.
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