Bacterial Inactivation by Atmospheric Pressure Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma Jet

Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli seeded in two media (agar and filter papers) were exposed to after-glow plasma emitted from a atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma jet generator in open air with a temperature of about 30–80 °C. In order to estimate the inactivation of microorganism using DBD plasma jet, various plasma conditions (such as treatment time and feed-gas composition of plasma jet) were changed. The results shown that the effective area of inactivation increased with the plasma treatment time as the bacteria seeded in Agar medium. The effective area of inactivation was much bigger than plasma jet treatment area after 5 min treatment. With the use of filter papers as the supporting media, the addition of reactive gases (oxygen, hydrogen peroxide vapor) into the plasma jet system, compared with only pure noble gas, led to a significant improvement in the bacterial Inactivation efficacy.