IIT Guwahati Develops Low-Cost Sterilization Box For Disinfecting Household Items

The designed sterilization box comprises a wooden box, two incandescent bulbs for heating, two UV-C lamps for irradiation, one Digital Temperature Controller (DTC), and a timer.

Researchers at Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati have developed a low-cost sterilization box to disinfect small household items by combined heat and UV radiation to prevent COVID-19. The results of their investigation have also been recently published in Environmental Research (2021). According to the team, the products available in the market use only UV-C irradiation facilities to disinfect items at a cost between Rs 13,000 and Rs 15,000, while the developed device has both heat and UV-C irradiation facilities to disinfect items and costs around Rs 3,500. The developed device works using the combined effect of dry heat and UV-C irradiation. UV-C radiation is more effective in killing the pathogens at the surfaces and heat is effective in sterilizing the unexposed areas and pores.