%0 Journal Article
%T Microwave-Assisted Inactivation of Fomite-Microorganism Systems: Energy Phase-Space Projection
%A Victor J. Law
%A Denis P. Dowling
%J American Journal of Analytical Chemistry
%P 255-276
%@ 2156-8278
%D 2022
%I Scientific Research Publishing
%R 10.4236/ajac.2022.137018
%X This paper describes the use of log-linear energy phase-space projections to analyze microwave-assisted inactivation of bacteria and viruses under different fomite conditions within multimode microwave ovens. The ovens are operated at a cavity-magnetron frequency of 2.45 ¡À 01 GHz. Porous fomites (moist face towels, cotton swabs, kitchen sponges, and scrubbing pads, cigarette filters and N95-like respirators); along with non-porous hard surface syringe fomites are studied. The fomites are classed as dielectric; and absorb microwave energy to varying degrees depending on their complex dielectric permittivity. Microorganism resilience to microwave stress (defined as ¡Ý4 log<sub>10</sub> reduction in inactivation) when mapped using iso-volume trend-lines in energy phase-space reveals the persistence imparted by the fomite, and can be mapped between different microwave ovens. Microorganism resilience to thermal microwave-assisted treatment increases from vegetative Gram-negative to vegetative Gram-positive and on to Gram-positive spores. Bacteriophage MS2 and influenza viruses have an intermediate resilience dependency. It is shown that linear-scaled fomite temperature against process time graphs can differentiate between non-thermal and thermal micro-wave-assisted treatment of microorganisms.
%K Bacteria
%K MS2
%K Hepatitis C Virus
%K Human Immunodeficiency Virus
%K Influenza Virus
%K Disruption
%K Inactivation
%K Microwave Oven
%K Data Analysis
%U http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=118802