Title :
Inactivation Characteristics of Bacteria in Capacitively Coupled Argon Plasma
Author :
Sureshkumar ; Neogi, Sudarsan
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Chem. Eng., Indian Inst. of Technol. Kharagpur, Kharagpur, India
Abstract :
Plasma technology is being focused on the medical, food, and pharmaceutical fields for sterilization applications. The sterilizing effect of the 13.56-MHz radio-frequency (RF) plasma generated by using argon gas was studied using Staphylococcus aureus, one of the most common pathogens liable to hospital-acquired infections. The major focus of this paper was to perform a parametric study by varying the external-process parameters such as plasma treatment time, RF power, gas-flow rate, and pressure on the inactivation of S. aureus. The results were supported by optical emission spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy studies.
Keywords :
argon; biomedical engineering; chemical reactors; decontamination; food processing industry; health care; microorganisms; pharmaceutical industry; plasma applications; scanning electron microscopy; surface treatment; Staphylococcus aureus; bacteria inactivation characteristics; capacitively coupled argon plasma; hospital-acquired infections; optical emission spectroscopy; plasma technology; scanning electron microscopy; sterilization application; Argon; Food technology; Microorganisms; Optical microscopy; Parametric study; Pathogens; Pharmaceutical technology; Plasma applications; Plasma properties; Radio frequency; Biomedical engineering; plasma applications; sterilization; surface contamination; surface treatment;
Journal_Title :
Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TPS.2009.2033112
