Abstract
Surface sterilization using atmospheric pressure non-thermal plasma is rapid and effective. In this study, the humid air gliding arc discharge was selected as the atmospheric pressure non-thermal plasma source. It is found that inactivation rate had reached 72.3% at the initial 0.5-min treatment and a total inactivation of the bacterial population was achieved within only 1.5 min. The dynamic sterilization under different air flow rates and gap distances shows that increasing air flow rates and shorter discharge gap distance could improve sterilization efficiency. Although gap distance also influenced treatment surface temperature, even after 1.5-min treatment at the shortest gap distance of 1.5 cm, the surface temperature was still below 45 °C, which is insufficient to kill bacteria via purely thermal effects. Analysis of the scanning electron microscopic (SEM) images of bacterial cells demonstrated that the atmospheric pressure non-thermal plasma is acting under various mechanisms driven essentially by an oxidation effect. The experimental results show that humid air gliding arc discharge is a promising candidate among the emerging non-thermal plasma technology for decontamination.
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Du, C., Yan, J. (2017). Surface Sterilization by Atmospheric Pressure Non-thermal Plasma. In: Plasma Remediation Technology for Environmental Protection. Advanced Topics in Science and Technology in China. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3656-9_5
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