Pyro-catalysis for refrigerator disinfection via ubiquitous temperature fluctuation

Abstract

Bacteria breeding in refrigerators can greatly compromise the quality and shelf life of stored food, posing a serious concern. The utilization of disinfection treatments, including ultraviolet irradiation, ozone, and precious metal ions, in refrigerators is constrained by the risk of secondary contamination and the associated high costs. To tackle this matter, we developed a pyro-catalytic disinfection technology that takes advantage of ubiquitous temperature fluctuations to trigger the generation of highly cytotoxic reactive oxygen species for antibacterial. By subjecting the synthesized Ba0.68Sr0.32TiO3 (BST) nanowires or composite patches (BST@C) to temperature fluctuations ranging from 5 to 25 °C for 40 cycles, the survival rates of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Escherichia coli (E. coli) were found to be below 5%. More importantly, the survival rates of S. aureus and E. coli were reduced to 19% and 34%, respectively, after only 80 refrigerator opening-closing cycles. This effective demonstration highlights the potential of the safety pyro-catalytic disinfection technology, which does not require additional energy consumption, and exhibits great compatibility with refrigerators.