Mahanta, Nilkamal2024-12-062024-12-062024ROLL NO.176103015https://gyan.iitg.ac.in/handle/123456789/2705Supervisor: Dixit, Uday ShankerThe purpose of design and development of a new product is to transform ideas into tangible products. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) prompted the researchers to design and develop a sterilization box for the prevention of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In this work, first a sterilization box was designed with combined Ultraviolet-C (UV-C) radiation and incandescent bulb heating facilities. For performance assessment, initially unfolding of Immunoglobulin G (IgG) and antibacterial efficacy for the clinically relevant E. coli bacteria as well as for bacteria collected from daily use items were assessed. UV-C exposure 70 °C for 15 min unfolded the protein and killed all the bacteria. As a product diversification strategy, another sterilization box with Infrared (IR) and UV-C facilities was designed; its disinfection ability was tested against S. aureus and S. typhi bacteria and SARS-CoV-2 spike and RNase A proteins. For the broad-spectrum antibacterial activity, the optimum condition was UV-C exposure at 65.61 °C for 13.54 min. For understanding the effect on N95 masks, five disinfection methods, viz., incandescent bulb heating, UV-C irradiation, air drying after alcohol immersion, exposing to steam, and incandescent bulb heating combined with UV-C irradiation were studied. Alcohol treated and UV-C treated fibers became wider and rougher than the untreated fibers. Incandescent bulb heating combined with UV-C irradiation caused the least reduction in ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and scratch resistance. Further, sterilization box was transformed into a pedagogical gadget for product diversification. Five pedagogical heat transfer experiments with the help of developed gadget were described.enThesis