Inactivation effects of neutral reactive-oxygen species on Penicillium digitatum spores using non-equilibrium atmospheric-pressure oxygen radical source

The effectiveness of atomic and excited molecular oxygen species at inactivating Penicillium digitatum spores was quantitatively investigated by measuring these species and evaluating the spore inactivation rate. To avoid the effects of ultraviolet light and charged species, a non-equilibrium atmospheric-pressure radical source, which supplies only neutral radicals, was employed. Ground-state atomic oxygen (O(3Pj)) and excited molecular oxygen (O2(1Δg)) species were measured using vacuum ultraviolet absorption spectroscopy. The inactivation rate of spores was evaluated using the colony count method. The lifetimes of O(3Pj) and O2(1Δg) in an argon gas ambient at atmospheric pressure were found to be about 0.5 ms and much more than tens of ms, and their spore inactivation rates were about 10−17 cm3 s−1 and much lower than 10−21 cm3 s−1, respectively.