Xuekai Pei

Inactivation of a 25.5 µm Enterococcus faecalis biofilm by a room-temperature, battery-operated, handheld air plasma jet

Effective biofilm inactivation using a handheld, mobile plasma jet powered by a 12 V dc battery and operated in open air without any external gas supply is reported. This cold, room-temperature plasma is produced in self-repetitive nanosecond discharges with current pulses of ~100 ns duration, current peak amplitude of ~6 mA and repetition rate of ~20 kHz. It is shown that the reactive plasma species penetrate to the bottom layer of a 25.5 µm-thick Enterococcus faecalis biofilm and produce a strong bactericidal effect. This is the thickest reported biofilm inactivated using room-temperature air plasmas.

Temporal and spatial resolved optical emission behaviors of a cold atmospheric pressure plasma jet

The propagation behavior of cold atmospheric pressure plasma jets has recently attracted lots of attention. In this paper, a cold He plasma jet generated by a single plasma electrode jet device is studied. The spatial-temporal resolved optical emission spectroscopy measurements are presented. It is found that the emission intensity of the He 706.5 nm line of the plasma behaves similarly both inside the syringe and in the surrounding air (plasma plume). It decreases monotonously, which is different from the emission lines, such as N2 337.1 nm line, N2+ 391.4 nm line, and O 777.3 nm line. For the discharge inside the syringe, the emission intensity of the He 706.5 nm line decays more rapidly than that of the other three spectral lines mentioned above. The N2 337.1 nm line behaves a similar time evolution with the discharge current. For the N2+ 391.4 nm line and the atomic O 777.3 nm line, both of them decay slower than that of the He 706.5 nm and the N2 337.1 nm. When the plasma plume propagates further awa...

Numerical and experimental study on a pulsed-dc plasma jet

A numerical and experimental study of plasma jet propagation in a low-temperature, atmospheric-pressure, helium jet in ambient air is presented. A self-consistent, multi-species, two-dimensional axially symmetric plasma model with detailed finite-rate chemistry of helium–air mixture composition is used to provide insights into the propagation of the plasma jet. The obtained simulation results suggest that the sheath forms near the dielectric tube inner surface and shields the plasma channel from the tube surface. The strong electric field at the edge of the dielectric field enhances the ionization in the air mixing layer; therefore, the streamer head becomes ring-shaped when the streamer runs out of the tube. The avalanche-to-streamer transition is the main mechanism of streamer advancement. Penning ionization dominates the ionization reactions and increases the electrical conductivity of the plasma channel. The simulation results are supported by experimental observations under similar discharge conditions.

Experimental investigations on the propagation of the plasma jet in the open air

The fundamental of the generation and propagation of the atmospheric pressure nonequilibrium plasma jets has recently attracted significant interests. In this paper, investigations on the effects of the parameters of the pulsed dc voltages on the optical emission intensity of the plasma jet and the bullet propagation behavior are carried out based on the temporal-spatial resolved optical emission spectroscopy measurements and the high-speed photography. It is found that, with the increase in the applied voltage, the bullet propagates out from the nozzle earlier and accelerates to higher peak-velocities. The increase in the pulse frequency exerts no significant influences on the optical emission of the plasma jet and the bullet propagation velocity. But it can induce the bullet propagates out from the nozzle earlier. Besides, it is interesting to notice that, with the increase in the pulse width in the beginning, the bullet propagates out from the nozzle with longer delay time. However, when the pulse widt...

From short pulses to short breaks: exotic plasma bullets via residual electron control

Plasma plumes with exotically segmented channel structure and plasma bullet propagation are produced in atmospheric plasma jets. This is achieved by tailoring interruptions of a continuous DC power supply over the time scales of lifetimes of residual electrons produced by the preceding discharge phase. These phenomena are explained by studying the plasma dynamics using nanosecond-precision imaging. One of the plumes is produced using 2 – 10 μs interruptions in the 8 kV DC voltage and features a still bright channel from which a propagating bullet detaches. A shorter interruption of 900 ns produces a plume with the additional long conducting dark channel between the jet nozzle and the bright area. The bullet size, formation dynamics, and propagation speed and distance can be effectively controlled. This may lead to micrometer- and nanosecond-precision delivery of quantized plasma bits, warranted for next-generation health, materials, and device technologies.

Dynamics of a Plasma Jet Array

A nonequilibrium plasma jet array is reported in this paper. The gas temperature of the plasma array is at room temperature. High-speed photographs show that the propagation speed of each plasma plume is not the same. At the beginning, the propagation speed of the plasma plumes on both edges is higher than that in the middle of the plasma array. The simulation results indicate that this is due to the electric-field distribution of the plasma array. After 125 ns, the behavior of the plasma plumes looks like glow discharges.

The production mechanisms of OH radicals in a pulsed direct current plasma jet

The production mechanism of OH radicals in a pulsed DC plasma jet is studied by a two-dimensional (2-D) plasma jet model and a one-dimensional (1-D) discharge model. For the plasma jet in the open air, electron-impact dissociation of H2O, electron neutralization of H2O+, as well as dissociation of H2O by O(1D) are found to be the main reactions to generate the OH species. The contribution of the dissociation of H2O by electron is more than the others. The additions of N2, O2, air, and H2O into the working gas increase the OH density outside the tube slightly, which is attributed to more electrons produced by Penning ionization. On the other hand, the additions of O2 and H2O into the working gas increase the OH density inside the tube substantially, which is attributed to the increased O (1D) and H2O concentration, respectively. The gas flow will transport high density OH out of the tube during pulse off period. It is also shown that the plasma chemistry and reactivity can be effectively controlled by the pulse numbers. These results are supported by the laser induced fluorescence measurements and are relevant to several applications of atmospheric-pressure plasmas in health care, medicine, and materials processing.

A battery-operated atmospheric-pressure plasma wand for biomedical applications

Summary form only given. A handheld, battery-operated atmospheric-pressure plasma rod (named plasma wand, Fig. 1) which does not rely on external power source (e.g., wall power or power generator) and gas supply is reported1. The plasma wand can be used for killing bacteria, fungi, or viruses that are hidden in narrow channels such as nasal cavity and ear canal, which are difficult to access using most of currently available devices. Besides, the electrical characterization, plasma wand temperature, emission spectra of the plasma, ozone and OH radical concentration generated by the device, are investigated by different diagnostic methods. The temperature on the plasma wand stays at about 38°C after operating for about 5 minute and the outside electrode is grounded. So there is no feeling of hot or electrical shock at all when we hold the plasma wand. From the Lissajous-figure of the discharge, the power consumption is estimated to be about 12 W. The ozone concentration reaches 120 ppm at 1 mm away from the device and the OH concentration reaches 3.5×1014 cm-3 in the plasma. The preliminary bacteria inactivation experiment results show that all bacteria samples on the microfiltration membrane are killed by this device within 30 s.

On OH Density of an Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Jet by Laser-Induced Fluorescence

For room-temperature atmospheric pressure plasma jets (RT-APPJs), because of the gas flow, the OH density at a given position is different from the case without the gas flow. In this paper, an OH density decay model, which includes the main loss processes of OH and gas flow effect, is present. Based on the model, the simulation results have a very good agreement with the OH decay behavior measured by laser-induced fluorescence. The absolute OH density of the RT-APPJ is obtained when the best fit is achieved, which is about 2.4 × 1013 cm-3 at 5 mm away from the plasma jet nozzle and 1 μs after the discharge. In addition, to control the OH density, the effect of voltage polarity, applied voltage magnitude, pulse frequency, pulsewidth on the OH density is also investigated and discussed.

Study on dynamics of the influence exerted by plasma on gas flow field in non-thermal atmospheric pressure plasma jet

In this paper, first, steady state of the plasma jet at different operating conditions is investigated through Schlieren photography with and without applying shielding gas. Second, the dynamic process for the plasma impacting on the gas flow field is studied. When the discharge is ignited, reduction in laminar flow occurs. However, when the gas flow rate is too low or too high, this phenomenon is not obvious. What is more, both frequency and voltage have significant impact on the effect of plasma on the gas flow, but the former is more significant. Shielding gas provides a curtain for plasma to propagate further. High speed camera along with Schlieren photography is utilized to study the impact of plasma on the gas flow when plasma is switched on and off. The transition of the gas flow from laminar to turbulent or vice versa happens right after the turbulent front. It is concluded that appearance and propagation of turbulence front is responsible for the transition of the flow state.