Size Yang

Ablation of liver cancer cells in vitro by a plasma needle

A plasma needle using a dielectric barrier discharge reactor at atmospheric pressure with a funnel-shaped nozzle was developed. The preliminary characteristics of the plume and applications to the ablation of cultured human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) BEL-7402 cell line were presented. The effect of oxygen, which was injected into argon plasma afterglow region through a steel tube, was studied. The efficiency of argon-oxygen plasma depends sensitively on the oxygen concentration in argon plasma. Large differences between spectra in atmosphere and those in Dulbecco’s modified eagle medium are found. It is found that ultraviolet rays, O, OH, and Ar radicals can reach the bottom of solution and act on HCC cells and there is an optimum input power to get the most radicals.

The cold and atmospheric-pressure air surface barrier discharge plasma for large-area sterilization applications

This letter reports a stable air surface barrier discharge device for large-area sterilization applications at room temperature. This design may result in visually uniform plasmas with the electrode area scaled up (or down) to the required size. A comparison for the survival rates of Escherichia coli from air, N2 and O2 surface barrier discharge plasmas is presented, and the air surface plasma consisting of strong filamentary discharges can efficiently kill Escherichia coli. Optical emission measurements indicate that reactive species such as O and OH generated in the room temperature air plasmas play a significant role in the sterilization process.

Treatment of Streptococcus mutans bacteria by a plasma needle

A dielectric barrier discharge plasma needle was realized at atmospheric pressure with a funnel-shaped nozzle. The preliminary characteristics of the plasma plume and its applications in the inactivation of Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans), the most important microorganism causing dental caries, were presented in this paper. The temperature of the plasma plume does not reach higher than 315 K when the power is below 28 W. Oxygen was injected downstream in the plasma afterglow region through the powered steel tube. Its effect was studied via optical-emission spectroscopy, both in air and in agar. Results show that addition of 26 SCCM O2 does not affect the plume length significantly (SCCM denotes cubic centimeter per minute at STP). The inactivation of S. mutans is primarily attributed to ultraviolet light emission, O, OH, and He radicals.

Treatment of enterococcus faecalis bacteria by a helium atmospheric cold plasma brush with oxygen addition

An atmospheric cold plasma brush suitable for large area and low-temperature plasma-based sterilization is designed. Results demonstrate that the He/O2 plasma more effectively kills Enterococcus faecalis than the pure He plasma. In addition, the sterilization efficiency values of the He/O2 plasma depend on the oxygen fraction in Helium gas. The atmospheric cold plasma brush using a proper ratio of He/O2 (2.5%) reaches the optimum sterilization efficiency. After plasma treatment, the cell structure and morphology changes can be observed by the scanning electron microscopy. Optical emission measurements indicate that reactive species such as O and OH play a significant role in the sterilization process.

Effects of Atmospheric Pressure Air Plasma Pretreatment on the Seed Germination and Early Growth of Andrographis paniculata

The objective of this paper is to demonstrate whether air plasma can change the seed germination characteristics, seedling emergence, as well as biochemical reactivity, in Andrographis paniculata (A. paniculata) seedlings by modifying the seed coat and finding a beneficial treatment dose. Eight treatment doses and one control were used to conduct electrical conductivity determination, a germination test, a seedling emergence test and a biochemical assay. The results showed that after being treated with air plasma excited at 5950 V for 10 s, the permeability of the seeds was improved significantly, resulting in the acceleration of seed germination and seedling emergence. In the meantime, the catalase activity and catalase isoenzyme expression were also improved, while the malondialdehyde content in the seedlings was decreased (which means greater counteraction with environmental stress). After being treated with 4250 V for 10 s and 5950 V for 20 s, the seed germination was enhanced, but without an obvious change in seedling emergence. However, after treatment with 3400 V for 20 s and 5100 V for 10 s, the permeability of the seeds was decreased, resulting in a delay in seedling emergence. These results indicate that air plasma can change the physiological and biochemical characteristics of Andrographis paniculata seeds by modifying the seed coat, combined with the effects of the active plasma species, and that different treating doses have different effects.

Atmospheric cold plasma jet for plant disease treatment

This study shows that the atmospheric cold plasma jet is capable of curing the fungus-infected plant leaves and controlling the spread of infection as an attractive tool for plant disease management. The healing effect was significantly dependent on the size of the black spots infected with fungal cells and the leaf age. The leaves with the diameter of black spots of <2 mm can completely recover from the fungus-infected state. The plasma-generated species passing through the microns-sized stomas in a leaf can weaken the function of the oil vacuoles and cell membrane of fungal cells, resulting in plasma-induced inactivation.

Deactivation of A549 cancer cells in vitro by a dielectric barrier discharge plasma needle

An inactivation mechanism study on A549 cancer cells by means of a dielectric barrier discharge plasma needle is presented. The neutral red uptake assay provides a quantitative estimation of cell viability after plasma treatment. Experimental results show that the efficiency of argon plasma for the inactivation process is very dependent on power and treatment time. A 27 W power and 120 s treatment time along with 900 standard cubic centimeter per minute Ar flow and a nozzle-to-sample separation of 3 mm are the best parameters of the process. According to the argon emission spectra of the plasma jet and the optical microscope images of the A549 cells after plasma treatment, it is concluded that the reactive species (for example, OH and O) in the argon plasma play a major role in the cell deactivation.

Effects of Atmospheric-Pressure N2, He, Air, and O2 Microplasmas on Mung Bean Seed Germination and Seedling Growth.

Atmospheric-pressure N2, He, air, and O2 microplasma arrays have been used to investigate the effects of plasma treatment on seed germination and seedling growth of mung bean in aqueous solution. Seed germination and growth of mung bean were found to strongly depend on the feed gases used to generate plasma and plasma treatment time. Compared to the treatment with atmospheric-pressure O2, N2 and He microplasma arrays, treatment with air microplasma arrays was shown to be more efficient in improving both the seed germination rate and seedling growth, the effect attributed to solution acidification and interactions with plasma-generated reactive oxygen and nitrogen species. Acidic environment caused by air discharge in water may promote leathering of seed chaps, thus enhancing the germination rate of mung bean, and stimulating the growth of hypocotyl and radicle. The interactions between plasma-generated reactive species, such as hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and nitrogen compounds, and seeds led to a significant acceleration of seed germination and an increase in seedling length of mung bean. Electrolyte leakage rate of mung bean seeds soaked in solution activated using air microplasma was the lowest, while the catalase activity of thus-treated mung bean seeds was the highest compared to other types of microplasma.

The preliminary discharging characterization of a novel APGD plume and its application in organic contaminant degradation

An atmospheric pressure glow discharge plume (APGD-p) using a dielectric barrier discharge reactor with one conductive liquid electrode was designed in our study. The preliminary characteristics of the plume and application in the degradation of a dye, methyl violet 5BN (MV-5BN), were presented in this paper. The APGD reactor produced a cold plasma plume with temperature not higher than 320 K at power 5 - 50 W. The MV- 5BN solution as a probe for dye wastewater was treated by the downstream gases of the plasma plume. The results indicated that the active argon (Ar) and nitrogen (N-2) gases had little effect on the MV- 5BN degradation, but the air and oxygen (O-2) gas depleted the organic molecules effectively. In particular, the downstream O-2 gas degraded the dye molecules entirely.

Application of a novel atmospheric pressure plasma fluidized bed in the powder surface modification

A novel atmospheric pressure plasma fluidized bed (APPFB) with one liquid electrode was designed, and its preliminary discharge characteristics were studied. The glow discharge in the APPFB was generated by applying a low power with helium (He) gas, and the plasma gas temperature was no higher than 320 K when the applied power was lower than 11 W. The plasma optical emission spectrum (OES) of the gas mixture consisting of He and hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO) was recorded by a UV-visible monochromator. The calcium carbonate powders were modified by APPFB using HMDSO in the He plasma. The powder surface energy was decreased greatly by coating an organosilicon polymer onto the powder surface. This surface modification process changed the wettability of the powder from super-hydrophilicity to super-hydrophobicity, and the contact angle of water on the modified powders surface was greater than 160°.