The One Atmosphere Uniform Glow Discharge Plasma (OAUGDP)—A Platform Technology for the 21st Century

Representatives from many industrial sectors are searching for more economic and ecologically sound technologies to meet regulatory and competitive pressures. Currently, the majority of industrial plasma processing is done with glow discharges at pressures below 10 torr. This tends to limit such applications to high-value items, as a result of the high capital cost of vacuum systems and the production constraints of batch processing. It has long been recognized that glow discharges would play a much larger industrial role if they could be generated at one atmosphere and in ambient air. A promising platform technology for plasma processing across many industrial sectors is the one atmosphere uniform glow discharge plasma (OAUGDP), a nonthermal normal glow discharge that operates in air (and other gases) at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. It generates active species useful for the sterilization, decontamination, and surface energy enhancement of films, fabrics, air filters, metals, and 3-D workpieces. This paper will survey exploratory research and development at the University of Tennessee's Plasma Sciences Laboratory on eight potential industrial applications of the OAUGDP that can be conducted at one atmosphere and at room temperature with air as the working gas