IIT Jodhpur scientists develop device for purifying indoor air quality

NEW DELHI: A team of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Jodhpur have developed a novel ‘cold-plasma detergent in environment’ (CODE) device that maintains indoor air quality.

The IIT Jodhpur said the device has been tested extensively and it incapacitates more than 99.99% of harmful pathogens.

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The researchers include, Ram Prakash, professor; Ambesh Dixit, professor; Ramavtar Jangra, research scholar; and Kiran Ahlawat, research scholar, all from the department of physics, IIT Jodhpur. The results of the study have been published in Nature Scientific Reports Journal.

The device aim to deal with both aerosol transport and infectivity simultaneously in the indoor environment and treat the air in the occupied space at the source of contamination. It produces cold-plasma detergent in environment with optimum concentration and the ions produced have residency time of more than 25 seconds to effectively deactivate pathogens

It also produces requisite quasi-neutral electric atmosphere so as to balance negative and positive charges. The technology is now being used to develop indoor air sterilisers by Divya Plasma Solutions, a startup Incubated by the IIT Jodhpur Technology Innovation and Start-up Centre (TISC). The start-up company is promoted by Ram Prakash, the key inventor of the technology, and Anil Sapra, Bina Sapra and Pradeep Jain.

Ram Prakash said, “We initiated this work during COVID-19 pandemic to disinfect indoor environment and with a hard work of three years we have come up with the Novel CODE based indoor air sterilizers which will be soon available in the market for commercial use. The developed CODE device is unique with multiple advantages and will be highly useful for hospitals to reduce cross contamination besides its usages in indoor public places.”