Production of Energetic Metastable Nitrogen Species for Sterilization of Chemically-sensitive Medical Equipment
- Physical Sciences Inc., Andover, MA (United States)
Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) has applied an innovative microwave-generated microplasma technology to generate room temperature, atmospheric-pressure flows of electronically-excited oxygen molecules for the sterilization of plastic- and rubber-based medical equipment. The system uses only common, non-toxic gases and electrical power as inputs, and is compatible with all tested difficult-to-sterilize materials such as rubber and common plastics. Low-temperature plasmas are well known for having significant bactericidal properties, via both direct plasma contact or through exposure to discharge effluent. Our mixture of safe, non-toxic gases was selected to suppress the formation of the ozone typically associated with such plasmas to allow use with these more sensitive materials while allowing the generation of high levels of electronically-excited “singlet” oxygen for bacterial kill. The Phase I effort included detailed spectroscopic measurements and modeling of the chemical kinetics of the system in order to understand and optimize the plasma chemistry for use in sterilization applications. The system was tested against two types of bacteria, with log-4 kill achieved with E. coli bacteria and near log-3 bacterial kill for S. Aureus with 1-hour exposure times.
- Research Organization:
- Physical Sciences Inc., Andover, MA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- SC0017704
- OSTI ID:
- 1429304
- Type / Phase:
- SBIR (Phase I)
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-PSI-17704; PSI-6953 Final Report
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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