Propagation of argon surface discharge in long tubes at atmospheric pressure, is bactericidal effect and the effect of UV emission

Z. Kovalova (1, 2) , M. Leroy (1) , Carolyn Jacobs (1) , Michael J Kirkpatrick (1) , Z. Machala (2) , Filipa Lopes (3) , Christophe O. Laux (4) , Michael Dubow (5) , Emmanuel Odic (1)

1 GeePs - Laboratoire Génie électrique et électronique de Paris
2 Comenius University in Bratislava
3 LGPM - Laboratoire de Génie des Procédés et Matériaux
4 EM2C - Laboratoire d'Énergétique Moléculaire et Macroscopique, Combustion
5 I2BC - Institut de Biologie Intégrative de la Cellule

The objective of the presented work is the bio-decontamination of small diameter long tubes by direct exposure of the tube inner surface to the plasma of a pulsed corona discharge in dry or humid argon. Bactericidal tests were conducted with Escherichia coli strain DH-1 for various exposure times. Up to similar to 5.5 log(10) reduction was observed for E. coli exposed 44 cm away from the HV electrode, for a 20 minute treatment. The factors contributing to the observed bactericidal effect include desiccation, reactive oxygen species (OH), H2O2 accumulation in the liquid phase, and UV B (and possibly VUV) in dry argon.

Keywords: low-temperature plasma; bio-decontamination; UV emission; argon plasma; pulsed corona discharges

Domains: Engineering Sciences [physics]

Z. Kovalova, M. Leroy, Carolyn Jacobs, Michael J Kirkpatrick, Z. Machala, et al.. Propagation of argon surface discharge in long tubes at atmospheric pressure, is bactericidal effect and the effect of UV emission. 15th International Symposium on High Pressure Low Temperature Plasma Chemistry (HAKONE XV), Sep 2016, Brno, Czech Republic. pp.343-346. ⟨hal-02398498⟩