Building Disinfection: The Importance of Heterogeneous Physics and Chemistry

摘要

The disinfection of a building contaminated with biological agents requires that a lethal dose of the disinfecting agent be delivered to the building. However, the disinfectant will react with building material surfaces in addition to the biological agent. In the literature, the rates of these heterogeneous reactions have been assumed to be constant. This analysis demonstrates that at high disinfectant concentrations the deposition velocity decreases with time. In addition, we illustrate how the removal of the disinfectant by surface reactions can reduce the concentration of the disinfectant, increase the amount of time required to deliver a lethal dose, and increase the cost of disinfection.