## 3 Results and Discussion  
The use of patents is an important tool in the analysis of technologies and innovative activities. In this study, this tool was used to evaluate the technology of interest: chambers for disinfection or sterilization using O\({}_{3}\) or O\({}_{3(\text{aq})}\). Figure 1 shows the annual distribution of patent applications related to the described technology, and the first applications were found in 1999 (Figure 1a). Applications for patent documents were more significant in 2009, reaching a peak of 154 applications, followed by a peak in 2016 with 96 applications. The evolution of the number of patent applications may be related to the need to promote improvements in the processes of the cleaning and disinfection of environmental surfaces, which have been expanding in several areas, such as health, environment, and food [12]. According to the found results, exponential growth was observed between 2008 and 2009, and between 2014 and 2016 in relation to the number of priority patents related to the proposed theme. The increase in patent applications may be related to the frequency of reported outbreaks of infectious diseases in the last decade. Recent major outbreaks of highly pathogenic or communicable infectious diseases include plague (Madagascar), diphtheria (Banglades), Ebola (West Africa and Democratic Republic of Congo), monkey vox (Nigeria), Zika (South and Central America), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV; Saudi Arabia and Korea), and Lassa fever (LF; Nigeria). In addition to sudden mobridities and mortalities, pandemics, and epidemics cause social, political, and economic disorders [40]. However, they promote the search for preventive and strategic methods to contain the spread of diseases [41]. Documents in these specific years were assessed to identify if they could be related to possible epidemics occurred in these periods. In 2009, several countries suffered from the H1N1-related pandemic, at that time still known as swine flu. The global outbreak was characterized by a variant of swine flu of which the first cases occurred in Mexico in mid-March 2009 [42]. In addition to this, other situations could be highlighted, such as outbreaks related to avian influenza in the same year. The second and third years of the greatest observed deposits, 2015 and 2016, were significant for the infection of another world-infamous coronavirus, MERS-CoV [43]. Moreover, the epidemic associated with Zika virus infection greatly impacted mainly South American countries, later being associated to cases of microcephaly and Guillain-Barre syndrome [44; 45]. Despite not presenting the specific focus related to these and other cited emergencies in their scope, the vast majority of the developed technologies in the found patent documents focused on applications in health. Patent US007563329B2 (2009) refers to methodology for monitoring the cleaning processes of medical instruments involving a cleaning chamber [46]. Patent US007582257B2 (2009) refers to improvement in the method of the sterilization of medical articles in an O\({}_{3(\text{g})}\) humidification chamber [47]. Patent US 20090011044A1 is a technology based on packaging containing sanitizing agent O\({}_{3(\text{g})}\) used in the transport of products that need to be kept free from decontamination [48]. Another example, patent US009474815B2 (2016), refers to a method of sequential sterilization aimed at article sterilization based on the action of a conditioning agent and then a sterilizing agent, hydrogen peroxide, and O\({}_{3(\text{g})}\), respectively [49]. Cleaning and disinfection processes in this area are important since the use of disinfect solutions in environmental and surface decontamination is, in a certain way, one of the actions required in the fight against infections due to the growing increase in multiresistant microorganisms to treatments with antimicrobials, associated with high rates of nosocomial infections [13].