Stabilisation of Ozone in Water for Microbial Disinfection

Abstract

In current times of increasing global decontamination concerns, sustainable and environmentally-friendly technologies that possess rapid and effective disinfection capabilities are necessary for public health and safety. In this study, we evaluate the potential of ozone-based technology to reveal its immense potential in disinfection applications. Ozonated water generated by an electrolytic method was utilised to quantify ozone retention as a function of mineralogical composition for microbial decontamination. The impacts of temperature and detergent concentration on ozone concentration are critically analysed, as well as ozone’s decomposition and stain removal characteristics. In addition, fabric swatches inoculated with known concentrations of environmental microbes (Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Candida albicans, and Aspergillus fumigatus) are washed with ozonated water to ascertain the impact of wash duration on bacterial removal efficiency. The results show significant improvement in the stability and retention potential of ozone in mineral water at low temperature and in the presence of a detergent. The experiments demonstrate first-order decomposition kinetics of ozone in aqueous formulations. The disinfection potency of ozone is also substantiated by a significant removal of microbiota on the fabric utilised (up to 7 log reduction for the bacteria analysed), thus making it effective for sterilisation applications. This also reduces the need for toxic chemicals or chemicals with toxic by-products (e.g., chlorine) for large-scale decontamination operations in various industries.