The non-thermal gas discharges at atmospheric pressure, such as Steady State, Atmospheric Pressure Resistive Barrier Cold Plasma Discharge' are currently investigated for low temperature sterilization purposes with the intent of identifying the chemically and biologically active species produced. We have carried out electrical, chemical, optical, and biological studies on both He and atmospheric air plasma.A microwave absorption method was used for average electron density measurements. The ion measurements were done by collecting the ion current over an interval in time in a capacitor, and measuring the collected charge with a nanometer after the discharge was tumed off.This method prevents RF noise from the discharge from jamming the nanometer. The measurements indicated that an ion density of IO" ions per cubic centimeter was present in the discharge.A commercial unit used in environmental monitoring' performed chemical analysis. Our results comprise measurements of ozone, NO, NO,, and methane. The results of both He and atmospheric air plasma show that the overwhelming production was of ozone. A trace of NO was found. No NO, or methane was found.The analysis of optical characteristics shows that the far ultraviolet light production was negligible as compared to that of a 150-Watt mercury arc in a quartz tube. The distribution of tilamentaly discharge was observed through a transparent Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) coated substrate used as a top electrode. The photographs reveal that the filamentary discharges are distributed uniformly across the electrode area.Biological studies have been carried out with samples of XL-I BlueTM E. coli and attained promising results. The results of these experiments indicate that effective decontamination can be achieved within minutes when bacteria are exposed to ionized gases in close contact to the contaminating surface.
'A method for disinfecting and purifying air is researched. A compounded reactor that is being designed for the method's realization [I] consists of power inputting system and microwave chamber, which includes cold plasma dischargers of DBD type. A reactor's geometry provides spatially-homogeneous whole-volume processing without a deceleration of the airflow, while a reactor's power input does not significantly increase the temperature of airflow passing through.The problem of performing of acceptable internal microwave field is resolved by the use of array of original planar inputting radiators [2,3,4]. The energy distribution's homogeneity of order 92% is achieved up to date.Latest proofs of non-thermal microwaves' sterilization [5] make special interest for studying the synergistic anti-microbial effect of simultaneous use of non-thermal microwaves and plasmas. Influence of microwaves to increase the non-equilibrium plasma's recombination time [6] and this way to amplify the total effectiveness of a compounded reactor is also discussed.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.