Environmental and biological applications of microplasmas

Abstract

Stable glow-type discharge plasmas at elevated pressures can be generated and maintained easily when the plasma is spatially confined to cavities with critical dimensions below 1 mm ('microplasmas'). We studied the properties of several atmospheric-pressure microplasmas and their use in the remediation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and biological decontamination. The VOCs studied include individual prototypcal aliphatic and aromatic compounds as well as mixtures such as BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene). The biological systems under study included individual bacteria as well as bacterial biofilms, which are highly structured communities of bacteria that are very resistant to antibiotics, germicides, and other conventional forms of destruction.

Low temperature atmospheric pressure plasma sources for microbial decontamination

“…Non-LTE plasmas are capable for the treatment of thermolabile materials and moreover are easily adaptable to even complex geometries. Hence, they are widely used in a broad spectrum of applications ranging from low temperature plasma chemistry, decomposition of gaseous pollutants, light sources, surface modification to medical sterilization and microbial decontamination (Kogelschatz, 2004;Becker et al, 2005;Foest et al, 2005;Ehlbeck et al, 2008). But also emerging application areas like plasma healthcare can be approachable by the usage of non-LTE plasmas (Stoffels, 2007;Kong et al, 2009;Lloyd et al, 2010;Laroussi, 2009;Fridman et al, 2008).…”

“…Beside other interesting fields of application those plasmas can be used for microbial decontamination, too. Here, valuable results have been achieved in recent years (Rahul et al, 2005;Becker et al, 2005). However, this review is rather focused on the normal scale plasmas.…”

High-Frequency Electrostatic SW at the Boundary between Quantum Plasma and Metal

“…in superdense astrophysical bodies [1] (i.e. the interior of Jupiter and massive white dwarfs magnetors, and neutron stars), in intense laser-solid density plasma experiments [2][3][4], and in ultra-small electronic devices [5], quantum dots, nanowires [6], carbon nanotubes [7], quantum diodes [8], biophotonics [9], ultra-cold plasmas [10] and microplasmas [11].…”

Microplasmas: A Review

“…The microplasmas are able to generate diffuse atmospheric pressure plasmas with dimensions between 10-500 μm that can be used in medical diagnostics and environmental sensing. Becker and his colleagues [3,24] have been able to develop different microplasma sources which can be used for the removal of VOCs, suitable for remediation of gaseous waste streams, detection of trace contaminants in gas flow, generation of high intensity ultraviolet (UV) radiation, and sources suitable for microsized plasma reactors. Regarding the temperatures observed in these microplasmas, the temperatures can vary from room temperature in noble gases to 2000 °K in molecular gases.…”