Photonic model for airborne microorganisms inactivation by UV radiation

Since the coming of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019, virus spreading in confined spaces has been in the spotlight. Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) has proven to be an efficient method of rendering airborne microorganisms inactive. In the present study, a novel model for airborne microorganisms inactivation using UV-light is presented. A particle-to-particle photonic approach that takes into account each of the interactions between microorganisms and UV-light photons is obtained. The main advantage of the presented model is its faithfulness to to the physical reality of the inactivation process, i.e. that ultraviolet inactivation is a stochastic process not a deterministic one. This characteristic allows the model to track and calculate the inactivation success for each of the single particles conforming a particle cloud. The model is validated against experimental data of SARS Corona-virus 2 inactivation in a UV-reactor and against published data of of aerolized Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria inactivation.