A “plasma needle” is a cold plasma source operating at atmospheric pressure. Such sources interact strongly with living cells, but experimental studies on bacterial samples show that this interaction has a surprising pattern resulting in circular or annular killing structures. This paper presents numerical simulations showing that this pattern occurs because biologically active reactive oxygen and nitrogen species are produced dominantly where effluent from the plasma needle interacts with ambient air. A novel solution strategy is utilised coupling plasma produced neutral (uncharged) reactive species to the gas dynamics solving for steady state profiles at the treated biological surface. Numerical results are compared with experimental reports corroborating evidence for atomic oxygen as a key bactericidal species. Surface losses are considered for interaction of plasma produced reactants with reactive solid and liquid interfaces. Atomic oxygen surface reactions on a reactive solid surface with adsorption probabilities above 0.1 are shown to be limited by the flux of atomic oxygen from the plasma. Interaction of the source with an aqueous surface showed hydrogen peroxide as the dominant species at this interface.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
28 September 2013
Research Article|
September 24 2013
Atomic oxygen patterning from a biomedical needle-plasma source
Seán Kelly;
Seán Kelly
a)
School of Physical Science and National Centre for Plasma Science and Technology, Dublin City University
, Dublin, Ireland
Search for other works by this author on:
Miles M. Turner
Miles M. Turner
School of Physical Science and National Centre for Plasma Science and Technology, Dublin City University
, Dublin, Ireland
Search for other works by this author on:
a)
Electronic mail: kellys77@mail.dcu.ie.
J. Appl. Phys. 114, 123301 (2013)
Article history
Received:
May 15 2013
Accepted:
August 29 2013
Citation
Seán Kelly, Miles M. Turner; Atomic oxygen patterning from a biomedical needle-plasma source. J. Appl. Phys. 28 September 2013; 114 (12): 123301. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4821241
Download citation file:
Sign in
Don't already have an account? Register
Sign In
You could not be signed in. Please check your credentials and make sure you have an active account and try again.
Sign in via your Institution
Sign in via your InstitutionPay-Per-View Access
$40.00