The Interactions of Two Cold Atmospheric Plasma Jets

This paper presents the interactions between two cold atmospheric plasma jets. By changing the experimental conditions including the gas flow rate, the applied voltage, the power supply frequency and the inter-electrode distance d, three different interaction modes, attraction, repulsion and combination, were observed. It is shown that the interaction modes of the two jets are principally affected by the electrodes, the gas flow rate, the plasma jets and the power supply frequency.

Effect of An Atmospheric Plasma Jet on the Differentiation of Melanoblast Progenitor

Objective Melanoblasts are the cell source of regeneration for pigment restoration.The ability to differentiate into mature melanocytes is the essential feature of melanoblasts in depigmentation diseases.Cold atmospheric plasma is an ionized gas with near-room temperature and highly reactive species that has been shown to induce stem cell differentiation.The aim of the study was to explore the effect of cold atmospheric plasma on the differentiation of melanoblast progenitor cells.Methods In this study,melanoblasts were exposed to the plasma jet and the cell morphology was observed.The cell cycle and cell proliferation were detected.Furthermore,the cell immunofluorescence and the detection of melanin particle and nitric oxide were carried out to investigate the differentiation of melanoblast progenitor cells.Results Cells that were treated with the plasma had longer and more synaptic structures,and the G1 phase of cell cycle was prolonged in the treated group.More melanin synthesis-related proteins and melanin particles were produced after plasma treatment.Nitric oxide was one of the active components generated by the plasma jet,and the nitric oxide content in the cell culture medium of the treated group increased.Conclusion These results indicate that an increase in nitric oxide production caused by a plasma jet can promote cell differentiation.The application of plasma provides an innovative strategy for the treatment of depigmentation diseases.

Investigation of paint removal by atmospheric pressure plasma jet

Acrylic polyurethane paint on the surface of 2A12 Al alloy was cleaned utilizing an atmospheric pressure plasma jet in this work.The dynamic evolution of the paint removal process during plasma treatment with time was explored through analysis of morphology and chemical states.The results showed that although the thickness of paint could be reduced effectively with an increase in cleaning time,the removal rate of paint gradually decreased with time.During the initial cleaning process range,its original smooth morphology of paint turned rugged quickly and was almost unchanged with further plasma treatment.Element and chemical state analysis showed that the content of C in the paint layer decreased obviously after plasma treatment.In contrast,the O content increased remarkably.The cleaning mechanism could be mainly attributed to the reaction between active O-containing species in air plasma and organic components in the paint.After removal of superficial organic matter,residue inorganic metal oxide substances aggregated on the base.The exposed metal oxides on the one hand elevated the superficial O content,but on the other hand hindered further plasma penetration,resulting in a gradual decrease in cleaning rate with cleaning time.Therefore,physical wiping was proposed to be incorporated with the plasma method and effective removal of paint was realized.

Compared discharge characteristics and film modifications of atmospheric pressure plasma jets with two different electrode geometries

Atmospheric pressure plasma jet shows great potential for polymer film processing. The electrode geometry is the key factor to determine discharge characteristics and film modification of jets. In this paper, we compared the discharge characteristics and the film modifications of atmospheric pressure plasma jets with needle-ring electrode(NRE) and doublering electrode(DRE). The results show that jet with NRE has stronger electric field intensity and higher discharge power,making it present more reactive oxygen particles and higher electron temperature, but its discharge stability is insufficient.In contrast, the jet with DRE has uniform electric field distribution of lower field intensity, which allows it to maintain stable discharge over a wide range of applied voltages. Besides, the modification results show that the treatment efficiency of PET film by NRE is higher than that by DRE. These results provide a suitable atmospheric pressure plasma jets device selection scheme for polymer film processing process.

Development of an atmospheric fluorocarbon plasma jet generated by pulse modulated microwave discharge

Atmospheric fluorocarbon plasma plays an important role in the surface modification of insulating materials like polymers.The existing fluorocarbon plasma is usually generated by dielectric barrier discharge,which has a low concentration of reactive species and may cause insufficient surface fluorination.This work attempts to develop an atmospheric fluorocarbon plasma jet using a coaxial transmission line resonator by microwave discharge with locally enhanced electric field and high density.The gas temperature is reduced by pulse modulation technology.Three kinds of working gases,pure CF_(4),Ar/CF_(4)and He/CF_(4),are utilized to generate the atmospheric microwave fluorocarbon plasma jet.The discharge images,optical emission spectra,electron densities and gas temperatures are studied experimentally.The results show that the Ar/CF_(4)plasma jet has the best comprehensive performance,such as strong discharge intensity and controllable gas temperature.The electron density of the Ar/CF_4plasma jet has a magnitude of 10~(20)m^(-3),indicating a higher density than that of the frequently used dielectric barrier discharge.With the other conditions unchanged,the gas temperature at the end of the Ar/CF_(4)plasma jet can be reduced from 410.2 to 347.3 K by decreasing the duty cycle of the modulated pulse from 0.5 to 0.1.Thence,the microwave Ar/CF_(4)plasma jet is considered to be a promising fluorocarbon plasma source for surface fluorination of polymers.

The double coupled microwave resonance probes and application for diagnosing atmospheric pressure plasma jet

The double-coupled microwave resonance probe(DMRP)based on the hairpin probe is proposed for diagnosing atmospheric plasma jet(ne<1017 m-3).In this work,the resonance characteristics of DMRP are investigated by numerical simulation.It shows that two resonance peaks on the reflectance spectrum can be observed,and influenced significantly by some parameters,such as the probe separation,the distance to the handheld radio frequency atmospheric pressure glow discharge plasma jet(RF-APGDPJ)and the plasma electron density less than 1017 m-3.Based on two resonance modes of DMRP,the electron densities in the afterglow of RF-APGDPJ at the different rf powers and helium flow rates are diagnosed experimentally by matching the change of FWHM(Df1-Df1,airand Df2-Df2,air)measured by vector network analyzer with the simulated relation between the FWHM changes and the plasma density.

Temporal electric field of a helium plasma jet by electric field induced second harmonic(E-FISH)method

Electric field is an important parameter of plasma,which is related to electron temperature,electron density,excited species density,and so on.In this work,the electric field of an atmospheric pressure plasma jet is diagnosed by the electric field induced second harmonic(E-FISH)method,and the time-resolved electric field under different conditions is investigated.When positive pulse voltage is applied,the electric field has a peak of about 25 kV cm-1at the rising edge of the voltage pulse.A dark channel is left behind the plasma bullet and the electric field in the dark channel is about 5 kV cm-1.On the other hand,when negative pulse voltage is applied,the electric field has a peak of-16 kV cm-1when the negative voltage is increased to-8 kV.A relatively bright channel is left behind the plasma head and the electric field in this relatively bright channel is about-6 kV cm-1.When the pulse rising time increases from 60 to 200 ns,the peak electric field at both the rising edge and the falling edge of the voltage decreases significantly.When 0.5%of oxygen is added to the main working gas helium,the peak electric field at the rising edge is only about 15 kV cm-1.On the other hand,when 0.5%nitrogen is added,the peak electric field increases especially at the falling edge of the voltage pulse,where it increases reversely from-12 to-16 kV cm-1(the minus sign only represents the direction of electric field).

Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Jet in Ar and O_2/Ar Mixtures:Properties and High Performance for Surface Cleaning

An atmospheric pressure plasma jet generated in Ar and O2/Ar mixtures has been investigated by specially designed equipment with double power electrodes at 20~32 kHz, and their effects on the cleaning of surfaces have been studied. Properties of the jet discharge are studied by electrical diagnostics, including the waveform of discharge voltage, discharge current and the Q-V Lissajous figures. The optical emission spectroscopy is used to measure the plasma parameters, such as the excitation temperature and the gas temperature. It is found that the consumed power and the excitation temperature increase with increase of the discharge frequency. On the other hand, at the same discharge frequency, these parameters in O2/Ar mixture plasma are found to be much larger. The effect on surface cleaning is studied from the changes in the contact angle. For Ar plasma jet, the contact angle decreases with increase of the discharge frequency. For O2/Ar mixture plasma jet, the contact angle decreases with increase of discharge frequency up to 26 kHz, however, further increase of discharge frequency does not show further decrease in the contact angle. At the same discharge frequency, the contact angle after O2/Ar mixture plasma cleaning is found to be much lower compared to the case of pure Ar. From the results of quadrupole mass-spectrum analysis, we can identify more fragment molecules of CO and H2O in the emitted gases after O2/Ar plasma jet treatment compared with Ar plasma jet treatment, which are produced by the decomposition of surface organic contaminants during the cleaning process.

Surface Decontamination of Chemical Agent Surrogates Using an Atmospheric Pressure Air Flow Plasma Jet

An atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharge （DBD） plasma jet generator using air flow as the feedstock gas was applied to decontaminate the chemical agent surrogates on the surface of aluminum, stainless steel or iron plate painted with alkyd or PVC. The experi- mental results of material decontamination show that the residual chemical agent on the material is lower than the permissible value of the National Military Standard of China. In order to test the corrosion effect of the plasma jet on different material surfaces in the decontamination pro-cess, corrosion tests for the materials of polymethyl methacrylate, neoprene, polyvinyl chloride （PVC）, polyethylene （PE）, phenolic resin, iron plate painted with alkyd, stainless steel, aluminum, etc. were carried out, and relevant parameters were examined, including etiolation index, chroma- tism, loss of gloss, corrosion form, etc. The results show that the plasma jet is slightly corrosive for part of the materials, but their performances are not affected. A portable calculator, computer display, mainboard, circuit board of radiogram, and a hygrometer could work normally after being treated by the plasma jet.

Development of a new atmospheric pressure cold plasma jet generator and application in sterilization

This paper reports that a new plasma generator at atmospheric pressure, which is composed of two homocentric cylindrical all-metal tubes, successfully generates a cold plasma jet. The inside tube electrode is connected to ground, the outside tube electrode is connected to a high-voltage power supply, and a dielectric layer is covered on the outside tube electrode. When the reactor is operated by low-frequency （6 kHz-20 kHz） AC supply in atmospheric pressure and argon is steadily fed as a discharge gas through inside tube electrode, a cold plasma jet is blown out into air and the plasma gas temperature is only 25-30℃. The electric character of the discharge is studied by using digital real-time oscilloscope （TDS 200-Series）, and the discharge is capacitive. Preliminary results are presented on the decontamination of E.colis bacteria and Bacillus subtilis bacteria by this plasma jet, and an optical emission analysis of the plasma jet is presented in this paper. The ozone concentration generated by the plasma jet is 1.0× 10^16cm^-3 which is acquired by using the ultraviolet absorption spectroscopy.

Characteristics of a kHz helium atmospheric pressure plasma jet interacting with two kinds of targets

This study investigates the influence of two types of target,skin tissue and cell culture medium,with different permittivities on a k Hz helium atmospheric pressure plasma jet(APPJ)during its application for wound healing.The basic optical-electrical characteristics,the initiation and propagation and the emission spectra of the He APPJ under different working conditions are explored.The experimental results show that,compared with a jet freely expanding in air,the diameter and intensity of the plasma plume outside the nozzle increase when it interacts with the pigskin and cell culture medium targets,and the mean velocity of the plasma bullet from the tube nozzle to a distance of 15 mm is also significantly increased.There are also multiple increases in the relative intensity of OH(A^(2)Σ→X^(2)Π)and O(3p^(5)S-3s^(5)S)at a position 15 mm away from nozzle when the He APPJ interacts with cell culture medium compared with the air and pigskin targets.Taking the surface charging of the low permittivity material capacitance and the strengthened electric field intensity into account,they make the various characteristics of He APPJ interacting with two different targets together.

Numerical study of the effect of water content on OH production in a pulsed-dc atmospheric pressure helium–air plasma jet

A numerical study of the effect of water content on OH production in a pulsed-dc atmospheric pressure helium-air plasma jet is presented. The generation and loss mechanisms of the OH radicals in a positive half-cycle of the applied voltage are studied and discussed. It is found that the peak OH density increases with water content in air （varying from 0% to 1%） and reaches 6.3 x 10^18 m-3 when the water content is 1%. Besides, as the water content increases from 0.01% to 1%, the space-averaged reaction rate of three-body recombination increases dramatically and is comparable to those of main OH generation reactions.

Characteristic plume morphologies of atmospheric Ar and He plasma jets excited by a pulsed microwave hairpin resonator

Different discharge morphologies in atmospheric Ar and He plasmas are excited by using a pulsed microwave hairpin resonator.Ar plasmas form an arched plasma plume at the opened end of the hairpin,whereas He plumes generate only a contracted plasmas in between both tips of metal electrodes.Despite this different point,their discharge processes have three similar characteristics:(i)the ionization occurs at the main electrode firstly and then develops to the slave electrode,(ii)during the shrinking stage the middle domain of the discharge channels disappears at last,and(iii)even at zero power input(in between pulses)a weak light region always exists in the discharge channels.Both experimental results and electromagnetic simulations suggest that the discharge is resonantly excited by the local enhanced electric fields.In addition,Ar ionization and excitation energies are lower than those of He,the effect of Ar gas flow is far greater than that of He gas,and the contribution of accelerated electrons only locates at the domain with the strongest electric fields.These reasons could be used to interpret the different characteristic plume morphologies of the proposed atmospheric Ar and He plasmas.

Cleaning of nitrogen-containing carbon contamination by atmospheric pressure plasma jet

Atmospheric pressure plasma jet(APPJ)was used to clean nitrogen-containing carbon films(C–N)fabricated by plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition method employing the plasma surface interaction linear device at Sichuan University(SCU-PSI).The properties of the contaminated films on the surface of pristine and He-plasma pre-irradiated tungsten matrix,such as morphology,crystalline structure,element composition and chemical structure were characterized by scanning electron microscopy,grazing incidence x-ray diffraction and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.The experimental results revealed that the removal of C–N film with a thickness of tens of microns can be realized through APPJ cleaning regardless of the morphology of the substrates.Similar removal rates of 16.82 and 13.78μm min^(-1)were obtained for C–N films deposited on a smooth pristine W surface and rough fuzz-covered W surface,respectively.This is a remarkable improvement in comparison to the traditional cleaning method.However,slight surface oxidation was found after APPJ cleaning,but the degree of oxidation was acceptable with an oxidation depth increase of only 3.15 nm.Optical emission spectroscopy analysis and mass spectrometry analysis showed that C–N contamination was mainly removed through chemical reaction with reactive oxygen species during APPJ treatment using air as the working gas.These results make APPJ cleaning a potentially effective method for the rapid removal of C–N films from the wall surfaces of fusion devices.

An Indirect Method for Measuring Electron Density of Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Jets

An indirect method for measuring the electron density of radio frequency atmospheric pressure plasma jets （RF-APPJ） based on the discharge voltage and current waveforms is presented. An equivalent circuit of the plasma discharge is assumed by taking into account the electrode capacitance, serial resistance and inductance of the bulk plasma, as well as the sheath impedance. Based on the circuit model, the electron density can be obtained according to Ohm＇s law. By using this method, the effects of the electrode shape and discharge gap on the electron density are discussed.

Characteristics of Low Power CH_4/Air Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Jet

A low power atmospheric pressure plasma jet driven by a 24 kHz AC power source and operated with a CH4/air gas mixture has been investigated by optical emission spectrometer. The plasma parameters including the electron excitation temperature, vibrational temperature and rotational temperature of the plasma jet at different discharge powers are diagnosed based on the assumption that the kinetic energy of the species obeys the Boltzmann distribution. The electron density at different power is also investigated by HS Stark broadening. The results show that the plasma source works under non-equilibrium conditions. It is also found that the vibrational temperature and rotational temperat;ure increase with discharge power, whereas the electron excitation temperature seems to have a downward trend. The electron density increases from 0.8×10^21 m^-3 to 1.1×10^21 m^-3 when the discharge power increases from 53 W to 94 W.

The Effects of Gas Composition on the Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Jet Modification of Polyethylene Films

Polyethylene （PE） films are treated using an atmospheric pressure plasma jet （APPJ） with He or He/O2 gas for different periods of time. The influence of gas type on the plasma polymer interactions is studied. The surface contact angle of the PE film can be effectively lowered to 58° after 20 s of He/O2 plasma treatment and then remains almost unchanged for longer treatment durations, while, for He plasma treatment, the film surface contact angle drops gradually to 47° when the time reaches 120 s. Atomic force microscopy （AFM） results show that the root mean square （RMS） roughness was significantly higher for the He/O2 plasma treated samples than for the He plasma treated counterparts, and the surface topography of the He/O2 plasma treated PE films displays evenly distributed dome-shaped small protuberances. Chemical composition analysis reveals that the He plasma treated samples have a higher oxygen content but a clearly lower percentage of COO than the comparable He/O2 treated samples, suggesting that differences exist in the mode of incorporating oxygen between the two gas condition plasma treatments. Electron spin resonance （ESR） results show that the free radical concentrations of the He plasma treated samples were clearly higher than those of the He/O2 plasma treated ones with other conditions unchanged.

Optical Spectroscopic Investigation of Ar/CH_3OH and Ar/N_2/CH_3OH Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Jets

Ar/CH3OH and Ar/N2/CH3OH plasma jets were generated at atmospheric pressure by dual-frequency excitations. Two different cases were studied with focus laid on the generation of CN radicals. In one case Ar gas passed through a bubbler with saturated methanol steam but without addition of N2 （Ar/CH3OH plasma）. In the other case N2 passed through the bubbler with saturated methanol steam （Ar/N2/CH3OH plasma）. The optical emission lines of CN radicals have been observed in these two cases of plasma discharges. The addition of N2 can significantly increase the optical emission intensity of CN bands.

Sterilization of mycete attached on the unearthed silk fabrics by an atmospheric pressure plasma jet

The sterilization of the simulated unearthed silk fabrics using an atmospheric pressure plasma jet（APPJ） system employing Ar/O2 or He/O2 plasma to inactivate the mycete attached on the silk fabrics is reported. The effects of the APPJ characteristics（particularly the gas type and discharge power） on the fabric strength, physical-chemical structures,and sterilizing efficiency were investigated. Experimental results showed that the Ar/O2 APPJ plasma can inactivate the mycete completely within 4.0 min under a discharge power of 50.0 W. Such an APPJ treatment had negligible impact on the mechanical strength of the fabric and the surface chemical characteristics. Moreover, the Ar ions, O and OH radicals were shown to play important roles on the sterilization of the mycete attached on the unearthed silk fabrics.

Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Jet in Organic Solution:Spectra,Degradation Effects of Solution Flow Rate and Initial pH Value

The organic compounds of p-nitrophenol （PNP） solution was treated by the active species generated in a stirred reactor by an atmospheric pressure plasma jet （APPJ）. The emission intensities of hydroxyl （OH）, oxygen （O）, nitric oxide （NO）, hydrogen （H） and molecular （N2） were measured by optical emission spectroscopy （OES）. The relations between the flow rates of the PNP solution and degradation, the degradation effects and initial pH value of the solution were also investigated. Experimental results show that there exist intense emissions of O （777.1 nm）, N（337.1 nm）, OH （306-310 nm） and NO band （200-290 nm） in the region of plasma. Given the treatment time and gas flow rate, the degradation increased as a function of discharge energy and solution flow rate, respectively. The solution flow rate for the most efficient degradation ranged from 1.414 m/s to 1.702 m/s, and contributed very little when it exceeded 2.199 m/s. This indicates the existence of diffusion-controlled reactions at a low solution flow rate and activation- controlled reactions at a high solution flow rate. Moreover, increasing or decreasing the initial pH value of neutral PNP solution （pH=5.95） could improve the degradation efficiency. Treated by APPJ, the PNP solutions with different initial pH values of 5.95, 7.47 and 2.78 turned more acidic in the end, while the neutral solution had the lowest degradation efficiency. This work clearly demonstrates the close coupling of active species, photolysis of ultraviolet, the organic solution flow rate and the initial pH value, and thus is helpful in the study of the mechanism and application of plasma in wastewater treatment.