Comparison of Disinfection of Phi6 Virus Bacteriophage on Fomites by Various Methods and a Prototype for IR Application

Abstract

In this article, disinfection methods of Phi6 bacteriophage virus (equivalent of SARS-CoV-2) are presented and compared. Some of these methods are new, some have been retested, and one is cited from literature sources. In addition, the spread of the virus in droplets is theoretically modeled and its spread in air is visualized. Most of the existing virus disinfection methods, including thermal, UV, physical, and chemical, are applied, and new methods as infrared (IR) and microwave (MW)) are proposed, reviewed, and their virus degradation results are presented. The spread of the virus in aerosol and droplets is investigated through Brownian motion simulations using COMSOL software. The virus spread in air is visualized using a powerful laser and a high-speed camera. Comparative studies have been conducted for Far IR (FIR), MW, UV, chemicals, and heating techniques, as it produces therapeutic sunlight effect for disinfection of Phi6 virus bacteriophage.

The results that were previously published by us showing the effect of reducing the spread of the virus with FIR were briefly given and compared with the MW study results and the applications of UV, chemical and heating results. It was seen that the FIR method stood out as the most economical, harmless, applicable and effective method when compared with other methods through a survey study. According to a previously published paper showing that Phi6 virus bacteriophage was weakened, it was shown that the density of living virus decreased at temperatures about 42 °C and above on fomites. In order to demonstrate and use this effect, surface temperature measurements were performed on surfaces using different materials such as aluminum, wooden, paper, plastic, and tile and the results were used. Then a prototype device that utilizes FIR was developed in the light of current and previous results, tested and presented in this paper.