Room air purifiers that work with UV-C radiation are able to inactivate corona viruses in the indoor air.
This was the result of a study by virologists from the University Hospital in Tübingen and scientists from the Institute for Flow Research at the Heilbronn University.
The researchers developed their own high-security test bench for aerosols.
"We were surprised that UV-C doses in the lower range of what we can use in the test bench were sufficient to inactivate 99.9 percent of the infectious virus particles," said Natalia Ruetalo, who supervised the test series at the University Hospital in Tübingen .
It was scientifically proven for the first time that it is possible to reliably clean interiors of corona viruses with air purifiers based on UV-C.
This also applies to other viruses.
“A UV-C dose of 0.42 to 0.51 millijoules per square centimeter is necessary to reliably eliminate the corona virus.
So far we have known the effect of UV-C on solid surfaces.
We dared to do research with highly contaminated aerosols," said flow researcher Jennifer Niessner from Heilbronn University.
The researchers criticize that they were unable to obtain third-party funds from industry or public institutions for further investigations.