Dielectric barrier discharge plasma treatment on E. coli: Influence of CH{sub 4}/N{sub 2}, O{sub 2}, N{sub 2}/O{sub 2}, N{sub 2}, and Ar gases

Journal Article · Thu Oct 15 00:00:00 EDT 2009 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3236570· OSTI ID:21361895

Majumdar, Abhijit; Hippler, Rainer ^[1]; Singh, Rajesh Kumar; Palm, Gottfried J ^[2]

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1. Institute for Physics, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University Greifswald, Felix-Hausdorff-Str. 6, 17489 Greifswald (Germany)
2. Institute for Biochemistry, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University Greifswald, Felix-Hausdorff-Str. 4, 17489 Greifswald (Germany)

Atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma has been employed on Gram-negative bacteria, Escherichia coli BL21. Treatment was carried out using plasma generated with different compositions of gases: CH{sub 4}/N{sub 2} (1:2), O{sub 2}, N{sub 2}/O{sub 2} (1:1), N{sub 2}, and Ar, and by varying plasma power and treatment time. E. coli cells were exposed under the DBD plasma in triplicates, and their surviving numbers were observed in terms of colony forming units. It has been observed that the CH{sub 4}/N{sub 2} plasma exhibits relatively higher sterilization property toward E. coli compared to plasma generated by using O{sub 2}, N{sub 2}/O{sub 2}, N{sub 2}, and Ar gas mixtures. The time to kill up to 90% of the initial population of the E. coli cells was found to be about 2-3 min for CH{sub 4}/N{sub 2} and O{sub 2} gas mixture DBD plasma. A prolongation of treatment time and an increase in the dissipated power significantly improved the E. coli killing efficiency of the atmospheric pressure DBD plasma.

• OSTI ID: 21361895
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 106, Issue 8; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3236570; (c) 2009 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ARGON
ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE
BIOPHYSICS
COLONY FORMING UNITS
DECONTAMINATION
DIELECTRIC MATERIALS
ELECTRIC DISCHARGES
ESCHERICHIA COLI
METHANE
NITROGEN
OXYGEN
PLASMA
POPULATIONS
STERILIZATION
SURGERY
ALKANES
BACTERIA
CLEANING
ELEMENTS
FLUIDS
GASES
HYDROCARBONS
MATERIALS
MEDICINE
MICROORGANISMS
NONMETALS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PHYSICS
RARE GASES