M Dünnbier

Feed gas humidity: a vital parameter affecting a cold atmospheric-pressure plasma jet and plasma-treated human skin cells

In this study, the effect of feed gas humidity on the reactive component generation of an atmospheric-pressure argon plasma jet and its effect on human skin cells are investigated. Feed gas humidity is identified as one key parameter that strongly influences stability and reproducibility of plasma medical studies. The plasma jet is investigated by absorption spectroscopy in the ultraviolet and infrared spectral region for its ozone production depending on the humidity concentration in the feed gas. By optical emission spectroscopy the dependence of present excited plasma species such as hydroxyl radicals, molecular nitrogen, argon and atomic oxygen on the feed gas humidity is investigated. As an interface layer between the plasma jet effluent and the biological cell, a buffer solution is treated and the hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) production is studied with two independent colorimetric assays as a function of humidity admixture to the feed gas. Ultimately, the effect of varying feed gas humidity on the cell viability of indirect plasma treated adherent HaCAT cells is investigated. The highest viability is found for the driest feed gas condition. Furthermore, this work shows answers for the relevance of unwanted—or intended—feed gas humidity in plasma medical experiments and their comparatively large relevance with respect to ambient humidity. The findings will lead to more reproducible experiments in the field of plasma medicine.

Tracking plasma generated H2O2 from gas into liquid phase and revealing its dominant impact on human skin cells

The pathway of the biologically active molecule hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) from the plasma generation in the gas phase by an atmospheric pressure argon plasma jet, to its transition into the liquid phase and finally to its inhibiting effect on human skin cells is investigated for different feed gas humidity settings. Gas phase diagnostics like Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy and laser induced fluorescence spectroscopy on hydroxyl radicals (OH) are combined with liquid analytics such as chemical assays and electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy. Furthermore, the viability of human skin cells is measured by Alamar Blue® assay. By comparing the gas phase results with chemical simulations in the far field, H2O2 generation and destruction processes are clearly identified. The net production rate of H2O2 in the gas phase is almost identical to the H2O2 net production rate in the liquid phase. Moreover, by mimicking the H2O2 generation of the plasma jet with the help of an H2O2 bubbler it is concluded that the solubility of gas phase H2O2 plays a major role in generating hydrogen peroxide in the liquid. Furthermore, it is shown that H2O2 concentration correlates remarkably well with the cell viability. Other species in the liquid like OH or superoxide anion radical do not vary significantly with feed gas humidity.

Detection of ozone in a MHz argon plasma bullet jet

This study for the first time confirms the presence of plasma bullets in a MHz argon atmospheric pressure plasma jet. Bullet characteristics are investigated by phase-resolved optical emission measurements. Regarding the jets reactive component output, its ozone production rates are investigated by two independent diagnostic techniques yielding complementary results. The first method—UV-absorption spectroscopy in the Hartley band—determines space-resolved distribution of the ozone concentration in the jet effluent. The second method—quantum cascade laser-absorption spectroscopy in the mid-infrared spectral region—yields high sensitivity results of the average ozone concentration in a multipass cell, in which the effluent is directed. The results of both diagnostic techniques show excellent agreement.

Reactive species output of a plasma jet with a shielding gas device?combination of FTIR absorption spectroscopy and gas phase modelling

In this work, a simple modelling approach combined with absorption spectroscopy of long living species generated by a cold atmospheric plasma jet yields insight into relevant gas phase chemistry. The reactive species output of the plasma jet is controlled using a shielding gas device. The shielding gas is varied using mixtures of oxygen and nitrogen at various humidity levels. Through the combination of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and zero dimensional kinetic modelling of the gas phase chemistry, insight into the underlying reaction mechanisms is gained. While the FTIR measurements yield absolute densities of ozone and nitrogen dioxide in the far field of the jet, the kinetic simulations give additional information on reaction pathways. The simulation is fitted to the experimentally obtained data, using the CFD simulations of the experimental setup to estimate the correct evaluation time for the kinetic simulation. It is shown that the ozone production of the plasma jet continuously rises with the oxygen content in the shielding gas, while it significantly drops as humidity is increased. The production of nitrogen dioxide reaches its maximum at about 30% oxygen content in the shielding gas. The underlying mechanisms are discussed based on the simulation results.

Ambient air particle transport into the effluent of a cold atmospheric-pressure argon plasma jet investigated by molecular beam mass spectrometry

Ambient air species, which are transported into the active effluent of an atmospheric-pressure plasma jet result in highly reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS). Especially for the envisaged application field of plasma medicine, these RONS are responsible for strong biological responses. In this work, the effect of ambient air transport into the effluent of an atmospheric-pressure plasma argon jet on the on-axis densities of nitrogen, oxygen and argon was investigated by means of absolutely calibrated molecular beam mass spectrometry (MBMS). According to biomedical experiments a (bottomless) Petri dish was installed in front of the MBMS. In the following, the near flow field is referring to the region close to the nozzle exit and the far flow field is referring to the region beyond that. The absolute on-axis densities were obtained by three different methods, for the near flow field with VUV-absorption technique, for the far flow field with the MBMS and the total flow field was calculated with a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. The results of the ambient air particle densities of all independent methods were compared and showed an excellent agreement. Therefore the transport processes of ambient air species can be measured for the whole effluent of an atmospheric-pressure plasma jet. Additionally, with the validation of the simulation it is possible in future to calculate the ambient species transport for various gas fluxes in the same turbulent flow regime. Comparing the on-axis densities obtained with an ignited and with a non-ignited plasma jet shows that for the investigated parameters, the main influence on the ambient air species transport is due to the increased temperature in the case when the jet is switched on. Moreover, the presence of positive ions (e.g. ) formed due to the interaction of plasma-produced particles and ambient air species, which are transported into the effluent, is shown.

Plasma jet's shielding gas impact on bacterial inactivation.

One of the most desired aims in plasma medicine is to inactivate prokaryotic cells and leave eukaryotic cells unharmed or even stimulate proliferation to promote wound healing. The method of choice is to precisely control the plasma component composition. Here the authors investigate the inactivation of bacteria (Escherichia coli) by a plasma jet treatment. The reactive species composition created by the plasma in liquids is tuned by the use of a shielding gas device to achieve a reactive nitrogen species dominated condition or a reactive oxygen species dominated condition. A strong correlation between composition of the reactive components and the inactivation of the bacteria is observed. The authors compare the results to earlier investigations on eukaryotic cells and show that it is possible to find a plasma composition where bacterial inactivation is strongest and adverse effects on eukaryotic cells are minimized.

Stability and excitation dynamics of an argon micro-scaled atmospheric pressure plasma jet

A megahertz-driven plasma jet at atmospheric pressure—the so-called micro-scaled atmospheric pressure plasma jet (μAPPJ)—operating in pure argon has been investigated experimentally and by numerical modelling. To ignite the discharge in argon within the jet geometry, a self-made plasma tuning unit was designed, which additionally enables measurements of the dissipated power in the plasma itself. Discharges in the α-mode up to their transition to the γ-mode were studied experimentally for varying frequencies. It was found that the voltage at the α–γ transition behaves inversely proportional to the applied frequency f and that the corresponding power scales with an f 3/2law. Both these findings agree well with the results of time-dependent, spatially one-dimensional fluid modelling of the discharge behaviour, where the f 3/2 scaling of the α–γ transition power is additionally verified by the established concept of a critical plasma density for sheath breakdown. Furthermore, phase resolved spectroscopy of the optical emission at 750.39 nm as well as at 810.37 nm and 811.53 nm was applied to analyse the excitation dynamics of the discharge at 27 MHz for different applied powers. The increase of the power leads to an additional maximum in the excitation structure of the 750.39 nm line emission at the α–γ transition point, whereas the emission structure around 811 nm does not change qualitatively. According to the fluid modelling results, this differing behaviour originates from the different population mechanisms of the corresponding energy levels of argon.

Feed gas humidity versus ambient humidity — What matters more in plasma medicine and what makes cells care?

Summary form only given. Humidity plays an important role in plasma chemistry and influences the production of a variety of reactive species like OH, H2O2 or O3. This is especially true in the fast growing field of plasma medicine where patients are supposed to be treated under ambient conditions with changing humidity concentrations. Also when humidity is present in the feed gas of the plasma source - unwanted or intended - a change in the plasma produced active species is obtained. In this paper the influence of ambient humidity and feed gas humidity on the effluent of an atmospheric pressure argon plasma jet is investigated by means of optical emission spectroscopy, Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy inside a white cell with an effective absorption length of 19.2 m, as well as absorption spectroscopy in the UV and IR spectral range. With these techniques gas phase production rates of H2O2, O3 and NO2 as well as spatial distributions of excited plasma species like Ar, O, N2 and OH are determined in dependence of the humidity concentration. On basis of the presented results it is shown that feed gas humidity is more relevant to consider than ambient humidity. However, when constant feed gas humidity concentrations are experimentally provided changes in ambient humidity become relevant again. In order to give an impression of how crucial feed gas humidity influence is on indirect plasma treated human skin cells results of a viability assay are presented1. These results are correlated to the liquid phase production of H2O2 molecules as well as O2and OH radicals in liquid cell growth medium. Applied measurement techniques are colorimetric assays for determination of the H2O2 density and electron spin resonance spectroscopy for O2and OH radical densities. A remarkable correlation of the cell viability with H2O2 concentration was found whereas O2 and OH do not seem to have a direct effect.

Diagnostics of ambient air species diffusion into the effluent of an atmospheric pressure plasma jet assisted by analytical and numerical modelling

Summary form only given. The diffusion of ambient air species into the effluent of an argon atmospheric pressure plasma jet (kINPen09) is estimated by an analytical model based on a convection-diffusion approach and quantified by a novel VUV absorption technique.