A team of researchers has developed a portable, more environmentally friendly method to produce hydrogen peroxide. It could enable hospitals to make their own supply of the disinfectant on demand and at lower cost.
The work, a collaboration between the University of California San Diego, Columbia University, Brookhaven National Laboratory, the University of Calgary, and the University of California, Irvine, is detailed in a paper published in Nature Communications.
Hydrogen peroxide has recently made headlines as researchers and medical centers around the country have been testing its viability in decontaminating N95 masks to deal with shortages amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
While results so far are promising, some researchers worry that the chemical’s poor shelf life could make such decontamination efforts costly.
Read more at University Of California - San Diego
Image: The researchers' H-cell setup used in developing their hydrogen peroxide production method. CREDIT: University Of California - San Diego