There is an exciting news from the science world and those of us who sit on top of various technological and scientific inventions should definitely keep oneself abreast of this development.
A New Air Filter Developed Ingredients Found in Green Tea
A newly-developed air filter has been developed which can deactivate the germs, ‘self-cleaning’ them out of the system, using ingredients commonly found in green tea.
The filter that was developed by the special grants from Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) was built by the research team led by Suryasarathi Bose and Kaushik Chatterjee at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore.
The team developed germ-destroying air filters that can inactivate germs using ingredients like polyphenols and polycationic polymers commonly found in green tea. These ‘green’ ingredients rupture the microbes through site-specific binding.
As per a report by the University of Chicago, impure air might make our life shorter to the extent that Indians lose 5-10 years of their lives because of air-borne contaminants leading to respiratory diseases. This could also negatively affect our physical health as well as mental health.
The research was supported by special grants from SERB during the challenging Covid-19 pandemic and SERB-Technology Translation Awards (SERB-TETRA) funds and a patent has been filed on this.
When it comes to the captured germs, the existing air filters become a breeding ground for them over continuous usage. Due to this the life of the filter is affected as the germs grow and clog the pores of the filter.
The people who are in the vicinity of the same can also get infected by the resuspension of these germs.
The Newly Developed Efficient Filter Even Deactivates the Delta Variant
With an efficiency of 99.24 %, the new anti-microbial air filters were tested at the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories and were found to deactivate SARS-CoV-2 (delta variant).
The Ministry of Science and Technology on Saturday said that the technology was transferred to AiRTH, a startup that is replacing the existing germ-growing air filters with germ-destroying air filters for commercialisation.
A patent was granted in 2022 to the same as this innovation holds promise to develop antimicrobial filters that can prevent endemics caused by air-borne pathogens.
These novel antimicrobial filters in our ACs, central ducts and air purifiers can play a crucial role in our fight against air pollution and mitigate the spread of air-borne pathogens like coronaviruses.
