Lab Report

Sean Burke, Zane Walas,

Simon Moattar, Nico Hadiaris
 Abstract
In this experiment, we tested to find out which was the more effective method of
sanitation between J-512 sanitizer and UV-C light. Each method of sanitation was applied to
three pairs of bacteria-contaminated petri dishes for different amounts of time each pair. The
UV-C light killed more bacteria on the 15 second pair and the 60 second pair, with the same
amount of bacteria being killed on the 30 second pair. There may have been some
experimental inconsistencies or errors in the application of bacteria to the petri dishes and of
J-512 sanitizer to the bacteria. In the future, we would want to test in a more controlled
environment and to be able to test both methods on the Coronavirus
 Table of Contents

Introduction

Methods

Results

Discussion

References

Appendices
 Introduction
Bacteria and viruses can be killed on a surface in a multitude of ways. Chemical
mixtures, heat and ultraviolet rays cover most of the spectrum. As our product is meant to
make sure the conveyor belts in grocery store checkout areas, we needed to choose which
method to incorporate into our design. While narrowing down aspects of our design, our
group decided that the two most effective ways to sanitize a grocery store conveyor belt were
using a UV-C light or J-512 sanitizer.

The results of this experiment will reveal which method of sanitation is more
effective in different amounts of exposure time. The question we hope to answer is “Which
method of sanitation, UV-C light or J-512 sanitizer, is more effective at killing bacteria in a
limited amount of time?”
 Method
By coughing and spitting into a cup of lukewarm water, we simulated the airborne
substance of a cough. Using this “cough,” we spread bacteria on to agar in petri dishes, and
then sanitized each petri dish for varying amounts of time. Half of the petri dishes were
sanitized with J-512, and the other half were sanitized with a UV-C light.
Our experimental apparatus included 18 petri dishes with agar, a 1.8 liter container of
J-512 sanitizer (only a few ounces of which were used), a handheld UV-C sanitation light, a
half cup of “cough” simulator (described above), and 18 swabs. Once the petri dishes had
been contaminated, they were put into a cardboard box with a desk lamp inside for
incubation.
Equipment:
● 1 liter of J-512 sanitizer
● 1 UV-C light
● 18 petri dishes with agar
● 18+ Swabs
● 1 spray bottle
● A stopwatch
Swabs were dipped into the “cough” and then applied to two petri dishes. J-512
sanitizer was then applied to these petri dishes through a dropper. As soon as the J-512 was
applied, a stopwatch was started. When the stopwatch reached 15 seconds, two new swabs
were used to gather residue from the surface of the two petri dishes and then contaminate
two fresh petri dishes. This process was repeated, but the stopwatch ran to 30 seconds and
one minute for the next two sets of petri dishes. This phase of the experiment used a total of
12 petri dishes. Next, six more petri dishes were contaminated with “cough” using swabs.
These six petri dishes were split into three pairs, and each pair was held under the UV-C
light for a different amount of time. One pair was 15 seconds, the next was 30 seconds, and
the last was a minute. The six petri dishes exposed to UV and the second six petri dishes
from the first phase were all placed into the incubator for three days.

Results
Overall, more bacteria colonies were able to grow in the J-512 treated petri dishes
than in the UV-C petri dishes. Also, a wider variety of bacteria grew in the J-512 petri dishes.

J-512 UV

J-512 petri dishes UV-C petri dishes

# Bacteria colonies (15 sec 4+ / 4+ (8+ avg) 2 / 6 (4 avg)

exposure)

# Bacteria colonies (30 sec 2 / 3 (2.5 avg) 3 / 2 (2.5 avg)

 Exposure)

#Bacteria colonies (60 sec 4 / 3 (3.5 avg) 3 / 1 (2 avg)

exposure)

The above table exhibits the amount of bacteria colonies that grew in each petri dish
over three days. The graph below shows the above results in graph form.

As one would expect, there is an inverse relationship between length of exposure and
amount of bacteria colonies grown. The UV-C petri dishes showed a steady downward trend,
while the J-512 dishes showed a slight upward trend at the end. As a side note, the J-512
dishes also had a type of bacteria grow in both of the 15-second dishes that none of the UV-C
dishes had in them.

Discussion
 Based on the total amount of bacteria colonies that grew in each petri dish, the UV-C
light kills more bacteria than the J-512 sanitizer at each increment of exposure time.

While both graphs trend downward, indicating that more bacteria is killed under
longer exposure, the UV-C dishes’ graph starts below the J-512 sanitizer, and stays below it.
Less bacteria means more effective, so UV-C wins.
As for the anomaly of there being more bacteria colonies on the 60 second petri dish
for the J-512 batch, this can most likely be explained by slight inconsistencies in the spread
of the sanitizer. While UV rays are evenly spread pretty much no matter what, liquid
sanitizer can sometimes miss spots, meaning this anomaly may actually be an accurate
representation of the real life situation.
We will be using UV-C light as our method of sanitation for our design because of
the results of this experiment.
 Conclusion
The UV-C light proved to be a more effective sanitizer than J-512 because less
bacteria were able to survive the rays of UV light than the J-512 liquid. Some possible errors
in experimentation were that no official samples of bacteria were used, and the amount of
bacteria originally in each petri dish is uncertain. In the future, we would test in a more
controlled environment using real samples of bacteria instead of the “cough” mixture. Also,
we would want to somehow test the effectiveness of each method against SARS-Cov2, which
causes the Coronavirus.

References
No outside data used for this experiment

Appendices