CBC: This Simple Mix of Dye and Light could Decontaminate Masks for Reuse
Note: This article was originally published by CBC on February 12, 2021, featuring Dr. Belinda Heyne, Singletto’s Chief Photochemist.
Researchers at University of Calgary participating in global study to ease PPE shortages
It's a novel application of a simple solution — and should it be effective, it could have an impact on mask shortages on a global scale.
Belinda Heyne, professor of chemistry at the University of Calgary, is part of a team who worked to develop a new method that uses a cheap blue dye and light in order to decontaminate medical masks.
"The dye, which is called methylene blue, [is] activated by indoor light. The methylene blue, through its activation, is enabling to take out the energy of the light and giving it to the ambient oxygen that we have around us," Heyne said.
"That's energizing oxygen, and then the oxygen is becoming reactive, and this is what is killing the virus.”