Jodhpur: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Jodhpur has developed a Novel ‘cold-plasma detergent in environment’ (CODE) device that maintains indoor air quality. According to the Institute, a team of 4 members have extensively tested the device which incapacitates more than 99.99% of harmful pathogens. The researchers were Ram Prakash, professor; Ambesh Dixit, professor; Ramavtar Jangra, research scholar; and Kiran Ahlawat, research scholar. They all are from the IIT Jodhpur's physics department. The results of the study have been published in Nature Scientific Reports Journal.
According to the journal, the device aims to deal with both aerosol transport and infectivity simultaneously in the indoor environment and treat the air in the occupied space at the source of contamination. It produces cold-plasma detergent in environment with optimum concentration and the ions produced have residency time of more than 25 seconds to effectively deactivate pathogens.
It also produces requisite quasi-neutral electric atmosphere so as to balance negative and positive charges. The technology is now being used to develop indoor air sterilisers by Divya Plasma Solutions, a startup Incubated by the IIT Jodhpur Technology Innovation and Start-up Centre (TISC). The start-up company is promoted by Ram Prakash, the key inventor of the technology, and Anil Sapra, Bina Sapra and Pradeep Jain.
On this achievement Ram Prakash said, "We initiated this work during COVID-19 pandemic to disinfect indoor environment and with a hard work of three years we have come up with the Novel CODE based indoor air sterilizers which will be soon available in the market for commercial use. The developed CODE device is unique with multiple advantages and will be highly useful for hospitals to reduce cross contamination besides its usages in indoor public places."
Advantages of Novel CODE technology for Quality Indoor Air:
It produces Cold-plasma Detergent in the Environment (well-known nature of detergent) with optimum concentration.
Residency time of active ions is more than 25 sec to effectively deactivate the long-living pathogens.
It produces the requisite Quasi-neutral Electric Atmosphere so as to balance negative and positive charges similar to mother nature and also to produce local fields in the air to rupture harmful pathogens in the aerosols.
Consumes less power (for a 4” device average discharge power < 5 W)
Deactivates bacteria, molds, and viruses.
Reduces VoCs
Removes Odors
Captures dust and pollen.
