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Bacterial Decontamination of the Inner Wall of Narrow Tubes by a Nitrogen Afterglow at Atmospheric Pressure and its Relation to Local Atomic Nitrogen Concentration
Author(s) -
Limam Soukayna,
Odic Emmanuel,
Kirkpatrick Michael J.,
Pointu AnneMarie
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
plasma processes and polymers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.644
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1612-8869
pISSN - 1612-8850
DOI - 10.1002/ppap.201200170
Subject(s) - afterglow , human decontamination , nitrogen , atmospheric pressure , tube (container) , chemistry , analytical chemistry (journal) , quartz , materials science , extrapolation , composite material , chromatography , physics , meteorology , astrophysics , mathematical analysis , mathematics , gamma ray burst , organic chemistry , nuclear physics
A quartz tube with inner wall contaminated by Escherichia coli bacteria is treated using an atmospheric pressure nitrogen afterglow flowing at 20 SLM. The biocidal efficacy is measured locally at both the input and at the output of a 57 cm tube, giving a reduction of survivors of around 5 and 4 log for a 40 min treatment time, respectively. A weak contribution of gas heating is observed and delineated from the effect uniquely due to the plasma afterglow. Based on previous work, a model allows the estimation of the variation of the axial concentration of N atoms, assumed to be the main active species, and its correlation to the biocidal effect of the afterglow. Extrapolation of the model opens the perspective of the decontamination of longer tubes with smaller diameters such as catheter and endoscope ducts.