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Bacterial inactivation using a low‐temperature atmospheric plasma brush sustained with argon gas
Author(s) -
Yu Q. S.,
Huang C.,
Hsieh F.H.,
Huff H.,
Duan Yixiang
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of biomedical materials research part b: applied biomaterials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.665
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1552-4981
pISSN - 1552-4973
DOI - 10.1002/jbm.b.30586
Subject(s) - argon , plasma , micrococcus luteus , atmospheric pressure plasma , sterilization (economics) , chemistry , bacteria , atmospheric pressure , materials science , analytical chemistry (journal) , escherichia coli , environmental chemistry , biology , biochemistry , physics , organic chemistry , genetics , quantum mechanics , meteorology , monetary economics , economics , foreign exchange market , gene , foreign exchange
This study investigated the bacterial inactivation/sterilization effects of a new atmospheric plasma source, which is a brush‐shaped argon glow discharge created under 1 atm pressure. Such an atmospheric plasma brush requires extremely low power of less than 20 W to operate; and therefore is essentially a low‐temperature discharge as confirmed by gas‐phase temperature measurements. Two bacteria, Escherichia coli ( E. coli ) and Micrococcus luteus ( M. luteus ), seeded in various media were subjected to plasma treatment and their survivability was examined. It was found that such argon atmospheric plasma brush is very effective in destruction of the bacteria cells. With nutrient broth and standard methods agar as supporting media, a cell reduction in a level of 6 orders of magnitude was observed for E. coli within 3–4 min plasma treatment. A similar level of cell reduction was also observed for M. luteus in the two media with 2 or 3 min plasma treatment. The plasma treatment effects on the bacteria cell structures were also examined using scanning electron microscopy and the cell structure damages due to the plasma exposure were observed on both bacteria. The possible sterilization mechanism of the argon plasmas is also discussed in this article. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 2007