VOC catalysts: environmental guardians of medical sterilization equipment

The urgent need for VOC catalysts in the medical industry
Common methods for medical sterilization include ethylene oxide sterilization, hydrogen peroxide low-temperature plasma sterilization, etc. Taking ethylene oxide sterilization as an example, ethylene oxide, as a high-efficiency sterilizing agent, is widely used in the sterilization of medical devices that are not resistant to high temperature and high humidity. However, during the sterilization process, some ethylene oxide will remain and volatilize into the air. Ethylene oxide is a VOCs, which is flammable and explosive, and is toxic to the human body. Long-term exposure may cause serious diseases such as nervous system damage and cancer. With the increase in environmental awareness and the improvement of medical environmental safety requirements, the medical industry urgently needs an effective means to deal with these VOCs emissions, and VOC catalysts have emerged.
The key role of VOC catalysts in medical sterilization equipment
Efficient degradation of VOCs
VOC catalysts can significantly accelerate the decomposition rate of VOCs. After installing VOC catalysts in the exhaust gas treatment system of medical sterilization equipment, VOCs molecules such as ethylene oxide in the exhaust gas will quickly react chemically under the action of the catalyst and convert into harmless carbon dioxide and water. This greatly reduces the concentration of harmful VOCs in the exhaust gas, making it meet environmental emission standards, effectively reducing pollution to the surrounding environment, and creating a cleaner and safer air environment for hospitals.
Improve the safety of sterilization equipment
VOC catalysts reduce the concentration of flammable gases in the environment around sterilization equipment by decomposing flammable and explosive VOCs, reducing the potential risk of fire and explosion. This role is particularly critical for equipment using flammable and explosive sterilants such as ethylene oxide, providing an important guarantee for the safe and stable operation of medical sterilization equipment, allowing medical staff to work more safely. The working principle of VOC catalysts
VOC catalysts usually use precious metals (such as platinum, palladium) or transition metal oxides as active ingredients. Its working principle is based on catalytic oxidation reactions. When the gas containing VOCs passes through the surface of the catalyst, the VOCs molecules are first adsorbed by the active sites on the surface of the catalyst. At the active sites, the VOCs molecules react with oxygen, and due to the presence of the catalyst, the activation energy of the reaction is greatly reduced. The catalyst is not consumed during the reaction process, but only provides a platform to accelerate the reaction, so that the oxidation reaction that is difficult to occur or reacts slowly at normal temperature and pressure can be carried out quickly and efficiently, thereby achieving effective degradation of VOCs.
VOC catalysts have become an indispensable part of modern medical sterilization equipment due to their outstanding performance in degrading VOCs and improving safety, injecting strong impetus into the environmental protection and safety development of the medical industry.