| AVS 57th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Plasma Science and Technology | Thursday Sessions |
| Session PS2+BI-ThA |
| Session: | Plasmas for Medical and Biological Applications |
| Presenter: | S. Kitazaki, Kyushu University, Japan |
| Authors: | S. Kitazaki, Kyushu University, Japan T. Iwao, Kyushu University, Japan G. Uchida, Kyushu University, Japan K. Koga, Kyushu University, Japan M. Shiratani, Kyushu University, Japan N. Hayashi, Saga University, Japan |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Nonthermal atmospheric discharge plasmas have been employed for biomedical processing applications, because they offer low temperature processing [1-3]. We have developed a scalable atmospheric dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) device for biomedical processing in a large area. The device consists of 12 electrodes of a stainless rod of 1 mm in outer diameter and 60 mm in length covered with a ceramic tube of 2 mm in outer diameter. In principle, the device size can be extended to a large area by increasing the electrode length as well as the number of electrodes. The electrodes are arranged parallel with each other at a distance of 0.5 mm. The frequency of applied voltage was 10 kHz, and its peak-to-peak voltage was 10 kV. The peak discharge current was about 0.15 A and the duration of each current pulse was about 10 ns. To obtain information about radicals generated in the discharges, UV-Visible emission spectra were measured with a multi-channel spectrometer. Spectral lines of N2 2nd positive band (280-400 nm) were observed in air DBD discharges. We apply the device to process seeds of radish sprouts. We compare germination and growth of seeds with one minute plasma irradiation to those of seeds without irradiation. While the germination periods of these two kinds of seeds are 2 days, being nearly the same with each other, the growth rate of irradiated seeds is 20-50% faster than that without irradiation. These results suggest that the DBD device is useful for such biomedical processing applications.
[1] J. Raiser and M. Zenker, J. Phys. D, 39, 3520 (2006).
[2] M. G. Kong, et al., New J. Phys., 11, 115012 (2009).
[3] A. Helmke, et al., New J. Phys., 11, 115025 (2009).