Using Internal Mechanisms as a

Novel Method to Ultraviolet

Sterilization of Computer
Keyboards
Aashka Patel
 Introduction
● Computers have a crucial part in society today. Regardless, if one personally owns a computer at home or uses a
public computer; people will find a way to use one.
● A study was conducted on multiple-user keyboards in a university campus, and more microorganisms were present
on the public computers opposed to the single-user keyboards.
● The multiple-user keyboard also had a greater probability of containing pathogenic bacteria.
● There was an average of 20.1 colonies per square centimeter for the multiple-user keyboards, while the single-user
keyboards had an average of 4.5 colonies per square centimeter.
● Ultraviolet rays are commonly used as a sterilization method. UVC (200-280 nm) can be directly applied to acute
wound infections to inactivate any harmful pathogens without any undesirable damage to the host tissue.
● Ultraviolet-C is also known as germicidal UV and is highly antimicrobial.
● Absorbed UVC photons cause damage to a bacterial cell’s genome system. Meaning the act of ultraviolet
sterilization inactivates the microorganism, not killing it.
● The productiveness of this method varies on the virulence of the microorganism
● Digital fabrication technology or 3D printing is a fast emerging technology; a design can be created online, and
then a geometrical representation will be printed.
● At the beginning of 3D printing only the plastics ABS and PLA were available; however, Polycarbonate (PC),
Polycaprolactone (PCL), Polyphenylsulfone (PPSU), Polyetherimide (PEI), and polyvinyl acetate (PVA) are all
used today.
● Splicing is a method used in 3D printing when the desired object is too big for the printer to print. It is still possible
to print larger scaled items, however it does need to be cut into smaller pieces.
 Objective & Hypothesis
Objective: Utilizing digital fabrication technology to create a computer
keyboard cover for general microbial disinfection.

Hypothesis: If UVC lights are placed under a 3D printed keyboard cover,

then it will inactivate the microorganisms found because the strength of
the germicidal light will make the genome of the bacteria non pathogenic.
 Assumptions
● Since germicidal lights are used in Figure 1: The keyboard cover design
disinfection the design created will be printed from the 3D printer before the six
individual pieces were glued together.
effective at removing the general microbes
found on the surface of the computer
keyboard.
● The UVC light is also placed under the 3D
printed design so it will be able to reflect
and hit all parts of the computer keyboard.
Figure 2: The keyboard cover glued
together and UVC light attached on the
inside covering the computer keyboard.
 Materials

Figure 3: A nutrient agar Figure 4: The keyboard cover Figure 5: The Figure 6: The keyboard cover
medium, 40 plates, 40 design created on an online grid used to design glued together. Using
swabs, gloves, safety software called Tinkercad. The measure the more of the E6000 (curing
goggles, computer dimensions of the design was 500 percent covered glue) the UVC light was glued
keyboard, cover design millimeters by 200 millimeters by by general on the inside of the cover. The
and bleach were used 50 millimeters. microorganisms. UVC light used also had a built
when culturing the 40 in timer that allowed for 5, 15,
plates for the experiment. or 30 minute increments. The
UVC light used was six watts
or 110 volts, and covered
93,000 square centimeters. .
 Methodology
1. Bacteria Quantity and Growth
a. 40 plates were cultured using an agar nutrient medium (Figure 3).
b. An old keyboard was swabbed for 20 of the plates before sterilization.
c. The keyboard was swabbed again for the other 20 plates after sterilization.
2. Keyboard Cover Design
a. The keyboard was first measured with the dimensions of 445mm x 160mm x 13mm.
b. A software called tinkercad was then used to create a design that was larger than than the measured
dimensions (500mm x 200mm x 50mm) to ensure the design would fit over the keyboard (Figure 4).
c. To make the pieces print faster and fit within the printer, the pieces were spliced into six smallers ones.
The splicing was done on the same software, tinkercad (Figure 1). .
3. Testing and Experimentation
a. Once the keyboard cover pieces were finished printing, a glue called E6000 was used to glue the six
individual pieces together.
b. The UVC light was then placed on top of the cover, and plugged into an outlet to turn on the light and
set to the 15 minute interval.
c. The keyboard cover was then placed on top of the keyboard for the 15 minutes.
d. The keyboard was swabbed once again and 20 plates were cultured using the same method as the first
20 plates.
e. After 24 hours the original plates (without sterilization) and the new plates (after sterilization) were
compared.
f. The colonies on the original and the new plates were counted using a pre-made grid to find the
percentage of general bacterial growth .
 Table 1: The general microbe percent
before and after sterilization through the

Data keyboard cover were counted and

collected. The percent was identified by
counting the squares on the grid that
● Data was collected by measuring the general microbes percent covered showed visible bacterial growth and
converting it into percents.
of the culture using a grid.
● 40 plates were cultured in total. 20 plates were cultured from the General Microbe % General Microbe %
Culture # before Sterilization after Sterilization
keyboard before it received the method of sterilization. The other 20 1 60 4
plates were cultured from the keyboard after it was sterilized through 2 38 4

the keyboard cover. 3 38 4

4 32 6
● A paired two sample for means t-test was done for the two sets of data. 5 36 8
● There was a significant difference calculated of p=7.9*10-9; the alpha 6 30 2

used was 0.05. 7 32 10

8 18 0
● The data of the general microbe percent covered before sterilization
9 44 14
ranged from 18% to 94%. 10 68 16
● The data of the general microbes percent covered after sterilization 11 20 2

ranged from 0% to 20%. 12 72 6

13 42 14
● The general microbe percent covered before and after the 14 66 8
experimentation were recorded using a grid placed on top of the culture 15 52 8

(Table 1). 16 48 6
17 90 4
18 74 14
19 94 20
20 64 0
Average 50.9 7.5
 Graph

Figure 7: A method of sterilization was tested on general

microbes collected from a computer keyboards. A significant
difference was observed (p=7.9*10-9). The means of the general
microbe percent before and after the sterilization using the
computer keyboard were calculated and compared.
 Data Analysis
● The keyboard cover designed using digital fabrication technology was effective in disinfecting the computer
keyboard.
● The statistical test conducted, there was a significant difference in reduced bacterial growth.
● After a two-tailed t-test was performed, it was evidently seen that there was a large variance of bacterial growth
between the cultures that received sterilization through the design and the cultures that did not receive sterilization.
● The p value calculated was 7.9*10-9 , which is significantly below the alpha value of 0.05.
● To substantiate the hypothesis, a two-tailed t-test had been run, the variance value (474.7263158) for the cultures
swabbed from the keyboard before sterilization was notably different then the variance value (31.10526316) of the
cultures from the computer keyboard that received the UVC sterilization.
● The variance values identify the dispersion of the data, and how far the data is scattered from the mean.
● The design would be more applicable in real life due to fact that in public settings where multiple-users keyboards
and computers are utilized, the cover can be left on top of the keyboard and left alone for the wanted time, and the
bacteria found on the keys could be inactivated, thus making the general microbes ineffectual at contamination.
● A similar study was conducted; however, a robot was created that would disinfect hospital surfaces and equipment.
● It was said that the robot was using UVC lamps implemented within it, and that it killed 99.999% of bacteria and
other variants present (Guettari et al., 2021).
● Another similar study was conducted with the use of UVC germicidal lamps at different heights and orientations on
top of diner tables.
● The experiment was successful at killing 99.999% of the E. coli present on the tables; the irradiation gave a dose of
12.8 J/cm2 (Lv et al., 2023).
 Conclusion

Data suggests that the general microbial bacteria did have a significant difference
in bacterial growths between the two factors tested. The bacterial growth was
larger in the first 20 cultures that did not receive any sterilization. Growth studies
showed that the bacterial growth reduced once the design was implemented for
sterilization. Since a statistical difference was found between the cultures that did
and did not receive the sterilization, it suggested that the keyboard used was
successful at immobilizing the bacteria.
 Further Research
Additional studies are recommended to experiment other forms of UVC
sterilization, and see if the method used in this experiment was more effective.
Future experiments can include implementing the UVC lights into the keys, so
the keyboard would backlight UVC lights. More research can be conducted on
new experimental 3D printing filaments. Using a UVC resistant filament would
be beneficial on the current design because it would be safer use, and allow the
user of the design to be in close vicinity.