Meet Sung Ming, 17, and King Pong Li, 18 year old, who have come up with an amazing gadget. This gadget could transform the world of infection control and hygiene. The gadget is a door handle that is capable of instantly killing germs every time it comes in contact with human hands.
Both genius inventors are students at Tam Lee Lai Fun Memorial Secondary School located in Tuen Mun, China. The duo realized that everyday items such as handrails, doorknobs, shopping cart handles and counter tops are perfect breeding ground for germs in the quantities of millions. They started looking into the idea of coming up with self-disinfecting surfaces that would remain germ free all of the time.
After a dedicated research, both of them found out that titanium dioxide is quite effective when it comes to killing of bacteria. They grounded it into a very fine powder to make use of it as a coating for the handle. It was also discovered that titanium dioxide is most effective when it is exposed to ultraviolet light. Since door handles are usually used inside, it posed a challenge. The team had to come up with an energy efficient artificial source of UV rays.
They finally managed to design a handle bar that was in the shape of a cylinder created from clear glass that is held on both ends by using brackets. One of the brackets holds an LED bulb that emits UV light. The LED doesn’t rely on external power but rather generates power for itself by using the gearbox that is attached to the door. The equipment inside the gearbox transforms the door’s motion into electrical power that is then used by the LED light. When a person moves the door using the handle, the gadget lights up and effectively kills off the bacteria that has been transferred during the contact.
In a lab, the gadget was able to demonstrate an efficiency of 99.8% when it comes to killing germs. The cost of the gadget is only $13 and it was presented during the 2015 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair as well.
