A Highly Efficient Ultraviolet Light C-Emitting Diodes (UVC-LED)-Based Portable Device for Elimination of SARS-CoV-2 and other Pathogenic Microbes

ABSTRACT

The high infectious and mortality rates of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, together with the nosocomial and community infections caused by many other important pathogenic microbes are currently making huge threats to human health worldwide. The ultraviolet (UV) light has been widely applied in biomedical industry, especially in eradication of pathogenic microbes for decades. Recent advances, especially UV light-emitting diodes (UV-LEDs), showed many advantages. UV-LEDs have been reported to be effective in killing microbes, however, there are still many unsatisfactory issues which affects the killing effectiveness. Furthermore, so far, the efficacy of UV-LEDs in killing SARS-CoV-2 is also not well evaluated. In this study, we designed and developed a portable UVC-LED device and tested its microbes killing effects. The amounts of pathogens including Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, non-tuberculous Mycobacteria, Candida albicans and SARS-CoV-2 were significantly decreased after irradiation for one second. A very highly efficient killing efficacy with killing 99.9% microbes was achieved within three seconds. Moreover, irradiation by the UVC-LED device also significantly decreased the germs on the mask, phone screen and elevator button. Therefore, an innovative UVC-LED device that can effectively kill microorganisms regardless of bacteria, yeast or SARS-CoV-2 was presented. 造成高傳染性和死亡率的冠狀病毒疾病（COVID-19）大流行，以及許多其他重要病原微生物引起的醫院和社區感染，目前正對全世界的人類健康構成巨大威脅。紫外線（UV）已廣泛應用於生物醫學產業，尤其是在清除病原微生物方面已有數十年的歷史，最近尤其是紫外線發光二極管（UV-LED）的進展顯示出許多優點。已有報導證實UV-LED可有效的殺死微生物，但是仍然存在許多因素可能影響清除微生物的效力。此外到目前為止，還沒有清楚地評估UV-LED在殺死SARS-CoV-2病毒的功效。在本篇研究中，我們設計並開發了一種可攜式UVC-LED設備，並測試了其清除微生物的效果。照射一秒鐘後，包括大腸桿菌，綠膿桿菌，金黃色葡萄球菌，非結核分枝桿菌，白色念珠菌和SARS-CoV-2在內的數量明顯減少。在三秒鐘內達到了非常高效的清除功效，殺死了99.9％的微生物。此UVC-LED設備也可顯著減少口罩、手機螢幕和電梯按鈕上的微生物數量。因此，本研究提出了一種創新的UVC-LED裝置，可以有效地殺死微生物，包括細菌，酵母菌或SARS-CoV-2病毒。