Race against time, new long-term disinfection products, urgent scientific research

Science and Technology Daily reported on the research and development of anti-epidemic science and technology in our hospital on February 11.

Focus on the first line of science and technology to fight the epidemic

Although it is still on vacation, researchers have been busy for many days in the laboratory of the Institute of surface interface Micro-nano Technology of Tianjin High-end equipment Research Institute of Tsinghua University (hereinafter referred to as the Institute of surface Interface of Tsinghua High-end Institute). In order to rush to produce the disinfection gel donated to the anti-epidemic medical staff, almost all the staff of the Institute are on duty. Since the production line workers did not return to work, these scientific researchers became "temporary workers" and the laboratory became a "temporary production line".

"Compared with the traditional way of spraying disinfectant, slow-release chlorine dioxide can achieve long-term continuous disinfection without dead angle coverage, which is a better way of disinfection." Du Chuan, executive deputy director of Tsinghua High-end Hospital Table Interface Institute, said in an interview with Science and Technology Daily that the high-end hospital emergency special team was urgently assembled on the second day of the new year to develop a disinfection gel with slow-release chlorine dioxide technology as the core at the fastest speed on the basis of previous technical reserves, providing a green, safe, long-term and efficient new means of disinfection and sterilization for this special war "epidemic.

All staff take up their posts at once

Most of the traditional disinfection techniques are sprayed or atomized, which has a good instantaneous disinfection effect, but it needs to be carried out frequently and cannot be effectively disinfected for a long time. At the same time, due to the influence of spraying range, there will be dead corners in disinfection. Chlorine dioxide is an internationally recognized broad-spectrum, high-efficiency green disinfectant. It has a good disinfection effect at low concentrations and is harmless to people. In 2003, during the SARS period, chlorine dioxide was first included in the official guidelines for disinfection.

"Although the effect is good, chlorine dioxide is easy to volatilize. As a disinfection product, controllable chlorine dioxide gaseous slow-release technology is a research and development difficulty. It happens that we spent more than a year studying this technology before, and at the end of 2019, A chlorine dioxide sterilization in addition to formaldehyde product has been successfully developed." Du Chuan said, "At 10:00 p.m. on the first day of the new year, I suddenly received an emergency call from Wang Jiadao, director of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and dean of the High-end Institute of Tsinghua University. The dean asked me if the technology I currently have could contribute to this epidemic. We technologists, because of the previous technical reserves, I immediately agreed to come down."

This is a race against time, but also a battle of concerted efforts. "In the early morning of the second day of the new year, a temporary working group was set up." Du Chuan said that although everyone was still working from home at that time, several video conferences were held throughout the day, and soon after the work was divided, everyone took their own actions.

The key moment of technical reserve shows its power

In this special period, it is not easy to accelerate the research and development process. In the case of unable to find processors and suppliers, as well as the shutdown of logistics and the failure of the factory to resume work, scientific researchers solve many difficulties through door-to-door pick-up, self-made equipment and special methods of self-production, and work overtime to promote the research and development process.

"The ability to develop a new anti-epidemic disinfection product so quickly this time is inseparable from our previous technical reserves. And the principle of spraying perfume in the air, the principle of gaseous slow release is that the gas molecules diffuse through Brownian motion, the molecular weight of chlorine dioxide is extremely small, the drift distance is far, the concentration of 0.01 ppm-0.03ppm(1ppm = one part per million) that has a good disinfection and sterilization effect."

In order to meet the needs of this anti-epidemic disinfection, Du Chuan's scientific research team adjusted the previous product formula, according to the disinfection requirements of different places, long-term stable chlorine dioxide concentration in a certain area, so as to achieve long-term continuous disinfection, to prevent the spread of the virus effect. A bottle of sterilization gel can be used in a room of 10-20 square meters for 1-2 months, and the sterilization rate reaches 99.9. Moreover, its volatile concentration is only 1/3 of the exposure limit of 0.1ppm recommended by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, which will not affect human health while ensuring the killing effect.

Emergency R & D Race against Time

"Time is too tight!" Speaking of this R & D and production, the project leader, Dr. Ren Li, said with emotion, "Although we had reserves of core technologies before, we still need to adjust the formula, choose the container and the mode of transportation for this anti-epidemic disinfection product ...... These were all completed in 3 days."

Due to the Chinese New Year period, and then catch up with the epidemic, logistics, materials are not in place. Du Chuan said that in order to get the materials in place quickly, they gave logistics a premium of 2.5 times, but many logistics refused. No way, they personally drove to Hebei, Shandong and other places to pull materials.

Affected by the epidemic and holidays, the surrounding shops did not open, and researchers could not even eat boxed meals. In the first few days, many people simply ate instant noodles and apples to satisfy their hunger. Every day I work until ninety o'clock in the evening before I go home from work. It is under their "pure manual" production that bottles of sterilization gel products rich in technology are produced from the laboratory. After the first batch was donated to Beijing Tsinghua Chang Gung Memorial Hospital for field application testing, the second batch of 500 bottles of disinfection and sterilization gel products were also produced, which have been donated to medical workers fighting on the front line.

"When the factory resumes production next week, the sterilization gel can be mass-produced. As a science and technology worker, we especially hope to contribute our strength in science and technology to fight the epidemic." Du Chuan said.

Reprint | Science and Technology Daily

Author | Chen Xi