Treatment of Biofilms by Atmospheric Pressure RF Plasma Jets: Touching and Remote

The use of atmospheric pressure low temperature plasmas (APPs) for decontamination is seeing renewed interest. A particularly challenging application is the treatment of biofilms (surface-attached bacterial communities) which are less susceptible to anti-microbial treatment [1] . Plasma treatment is a possible technique for both deactivation and regulation of biofilms. The demarcation between deactivation and regulation will be determined by the identity and magnitude of plasma produced reactants onto the surface. One possible method of toggling between deactivation and regulation of the biofilm is whether the plasma source is direct or remote. In the direct configuration, the plasma is in contact with the ECM (extracellular matrix) of the biofilm, which delivers charged and short lived species. In the remote configuration, the effluent to the ECM is largely long lived species.