Features of sterilization using low-pressure DC-discharge hydrogen-peroxide plasma

This investigation studies the theoretical and practical features of sterilization using glow discharge plasma in hydrogen-peroxide vapor. It is determined that in such a system, most sterilization is performed by the active species formed in the plasma rather than by ultraviolet radiation (as is the case in air or oxygen discharges). This study shows that sterilization by discharge plasma in hydrogen-peroxide vapor is more efficient than sterilization by other gas discharges: sterilization time is two to three times shorter in open surfaces and ten times shorter in packed articles. This study's calculations indicate that this enhanced efficiency might be due to fact that concentrations of the main biologically active particles, such as atomic oxygen and oxygen molecules excited to lower metastable states, reach values of /spl sim/10/sup 14/-10/sup 15/ cm/sup -3/, which is two to three orders of magnitude higher than that in oxygen plasma at the same parameters of the discharge.