Nanoporous Materials as Carriers of Hydrogen Peroxide Vapour: a New Bio-Decontamination Technology

Abstract

High-level bio-decontamination, which involves reducing microorganisms by 99.9999%, is essential in preventing Hospital Acquired Infections and controlling pandemics. This study demonstrates that nanoporous materials, which can retain molecules within their pores, and subsequently release them, can be used in high level bio-decontamination. H2O2 vapor is a golden-standard in high level bio-decontamination. This work demonstrates that various nanoporous materials, particularly mesoporous silicas, can be utilized to store and release H2O2 in the vapor phase. H2O2 concentrations of over 2500 ppm were achieved by desorbing it from the carrier material at low temperatures of 60-80 °C. Generation of H2O2-vapor by desorption from nanoporous materials is technically much simpler than vaporization of aqueous H2O2 solutions, which use flash vaporization processes occurring at 130-150 °C. This has important technical implications, highlighting the potential of nanoporous materials as carriers for H2O2 for high-level bio-decontamination.