According to the National Academy of Sciences, UVC light has been shown to destroy coronaviruses such as MERS‐CoV. This is because UVC is strong enough to destroy the genetic material of the viruses. The caveat however, is that UVC is harzadous to human skin and should only be used on objects and surfaces. With this in mind, our design incorporates a delay circuit that gives the operator time to leave the room.
A study published in the Journal of Virogical Methods shows that UVC light at 224nm emitting 4016μW/cm2 inactivated the SARS virus at a distance of 3 cm after 15 min (Carnell et al, 2004). From this study, we are able to obtain a tentative duration for the sterilization cycle as well as the required intensity of the device.