In the sector of cleaning services (e. g. building and industrial cleaning, reprocessing of textiles and medical devices), digitalization has been introduced for a long time due to high cost pressure and increasing shortage of skilled workers, whereby automated processes are also important in the context of quality management.

The aim of the research project was to develop a method for the bioimpedimetric monitoring of disinfection processes based on the impedimetric analysis of polarisable membrane models attached to interdigital microelectrodes, which allows the effectiveness of decontamination measures (disinfection including disinfectant cleaning, sterilisation) to be evaluated directly.

This allows errors to be identified much more quickly and hygiene safety to be further optimised.

By including a polyelectrolyte (polyacrylic acid or polystyrene sulphonate) in the generation of liposomal membranes based on the anionic phospholipid 1 palmitoyl-2 oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphorylglycerol in combination with stearylamine and cholesterol, polarisable membrane models could be produced which could be impedimetrically characterised after attachment to interdigital microelectrodes.

The impedance to be measured depended on the amount of intact membrane models. Consequently, damage to the membrane models, which was accompanied by a decrease in membrane integrity or leakage of the polyelectrolyte, could be tracked impedimetrically.

A measurement procedure was established by determining a suitable frequency range. Furthermore, various evaluation models were created which, among other things, enabled quantification of the membrane models or served to describe the thermo- and/or chemosensitivity of the polarisable membrane models.

Such a method for bioimpedimetric monitoring of disinfection processes would enable cleaning service providers (more than 30,000 companies) and textile service providers (approx. 2,300 companies) to independently and directly evaluate the effect of the decontamination measures they carry out for the first time.

The research report is available on request from FRT.