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Title: Assessment of the roles of various inactivation agents in an argon-based direct current atmospheric pressure cold plasma jet

Journal Article · · Journal of Applied Physics
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4730627· OSTI ID:22089246
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  1. Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing 100871 (China)
  2. College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871 (China)
  3. Department of Applied Science and Technology, Saint Peter's College, New Jersey 07031 (United States)
  4. Department of Applied Physics, Polytechnic Institute of New York University, New York 11201 (United States)

Three types of gases, pure argon (99.999%), argon with 2% oxygen, and argon with 2% oxygen and 10% nitrogen were used as operating gases of a direct current atmospheric pressure cold plasma jet to inactivate Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) suspended in a liquid. The inactivation efficacies for the plasma jets operating in the three gases decrease from Ar/O{sub 2}(2%) to Ar/O{sub 2}(2%)/N{sub 2}(10%) to pure Ar. Optical emission spectroscopy, electron spin resonance spectroscopy, high performance liquid chromatography, and atomic absorption spectrophotometry were employed to identify and monitor the reactive species in the plasma-liquid system for the three operating gases and revealed the presence of O, {sup 1}O{sub 2}, OH, NO, H{sub 2}O{sub 2}, O{sub 3}, and NO{sub 3}{sup -}/NO{sub 2}{sup -} as well as Cu{sup +}/Cu{sup 2+}. The S. aureus inactivation results indicate that atomic oxygen (O) is the key inactivation agent, while other species play a lesser role in the inactivation progress studied here.

OSTI ID:
22089246
Journal Information:
Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 111, Issue 12; Other Information: (c) 2012 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English