Decontamination of Streptococcus pyogenes and Escherichia coli from Solid Surfaces by Singlet and Triplet Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Jet Arrays

Abstract

In this work, we studied the manipulation of bactericidal effects of non-thermal atmospheric pressure plasma jet on a gram-positive (Streptococcus pyogenes) and a gram-negative (Escherichia coli) bacteria. Decontamination of S. pyogenes and E. coli was assayed by measurement of the growth inhibition zones on solid surface. Singlet and triplet argon jets were employed to manipulate the bactericidal effect of the jet arrays. The distance effect of the contaminated plates to the plasma nozzle was analyzed, too. It was concluded that the jet distance to the sample could alter the state of downstream plasma jet and in turn changes the growth inhibition zone cross section, significantly. On the other hand, by scaling the inhibition zones, we showed that each plasma jet enabled to disinfect a surface with two orders of magnitude larger than that of the contact jet cross section in 150-s treatment. The results of this work could be used in developing atmospheric pressure plasma jet arrays for extended surface decontamination.