A Comprehensive Analysis of the UVC LEDs' Applications and Decontamination Capability

The application of light‐emitting diodes (LEDs) has been gaining popularity over the last decades. LEDs have advantages compared to traditional light sources in terms of lifecycle, robustness, compactness, flexibility, and the absence of non‐hazardous material. Combining these advantages with the possibility of emitting Ultraviolet C (UVC) makes LEDs serious candidates for light sources in decontamination systems. Nevertheless, it is unclear if they present better decontamination effectiveness than traditional mercury vapor lamps. Hence, this research uses a systematic literature review (SLR) to enlighten three aspects: (1) UVC LEDs’ application according to the field, (2) UVC LEDs’ application in terms of different biological indicators, and (3) the decontamination effectiveness of UVC LEDs in comparison to conventional lamps. UVC LEDs have spread across multiple areas, ranging from health applications to wastewater or food decontamination. The UVC LEDs’ decontamination effectiveness is as good as mercury vapor lamps. In some cases, LEDs even provide better results than conventional mercury vapor lamps. However, the increase in the targets’ complexity (e.g., multilayers or thicker individual layers) may reduce the UVC decontamination efficacy. Therefore, UVC LEDs still require considerable optimization. These findings are stimulating for developing industrial or final users’ applications.
This work was funded by the R&D project of EXMA company in co‐promotion with the University of Minho NORTE‐01‐02B7‐FEDER‐048968 supported by Norte Portugal Regional Oper‐ ational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), by the UV‐Fast project funded by the Portu‐ guese Science and Technology Foundation (FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia) through UID/CTM/00264/2021 and the Research4COVID‐19 special fund (Project 011_595803006), and PLASMAMED project (ref. PTDC/CTM‐TEX/28295/2017) co‐financed by COMPETE2020, under Portugal 2020 through the ERDF and FCT.