Consequences Of Environmental Factors In Plasma Treatment Of Liquids, Tissues And Materials

The approved use of atmospheric pressure plasma sources in treatment of biological materials has as one consideration the ability to reproduce the procedure. In this context, the environment in which the plasma source is operated is a factor. Environment is used here in the most general way to refer to all components surrounding or interacting with the plasma source that may affect the dose delivered to the biological material. These components may include the physical electrical layout of the procedure (e.g., location of electrical ground planes, permittivity of the material being treated), pulse-power protocol, humidity or aerosol content of the surrounding air, alignment of the plasma source, porosity of the material being treated, or depth of the well-plate for in-vitro studies. In this paper, results from computational investigations will be discussed that address the consequences of environmental factors in consistency of treatment of biological materials by plasma jets and dielectric barrier discharges. The computational platforms used in this investigation are nonPDPSIM, a 2-dimensional plasma hydrodynamics model and Global_Kin, a 0-dimensional plasma kinetics model. Emphasis will be on plasma activation of liquids, aerosols or liquid covered materials, and treatment of non-planar or porous materials, including the physical layout of in-vitro studies.