A new, sustainable disinfectant made from sawdust and water can knock out more than 99 percent of some disease-causing microbes, including anthrax and several strains of flu.
Widespread use of some disinfectants can cause environmental harms. For instance, chlorine-containing ones, such as bleach, can form dangerous by-products when they react with other molecules (SN: 11/25/18). Some other potentially greener disinfectants rely on a compound called phenol or its chemical lookalikes, but they can be costly and energy-intensive to make.
Phenolic structures abound in wood, however, as part of the large, branching molecules that make up plant cell walls. So environmental engineer Shicheng Zhang of Fudan University in Shanghai and
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