Electrical and Optical Characterization of Cold Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Jet and the Effects of N<sub>2 </sub>Gas on Argon Plasma Discharge

Abstract

In this study, we conducted experiments to investigate the electrical and optical characteristics of a non-equilibrium Ar-N2 plasma discharge at atmospheric pressure. To obtain the plasma discharge we used our indigenously designed plasma generating device named CAPPLAT (Cold Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Torch) which was manufactured by Cresur Corporation. The plasma discharge obtained with only Ar gas was quite filamentary. So, to achieve a homogeneous discharge N2 gas was admixed. The effects of different volumes of admixed N2 gas were also studied. The optical emission spectroscopy was used to study the active charged species in the plasma discharges. The further increased volume of N2 gas further suppressed the emission intensity of Ar metastables but at the same time the emission intensity of the second positive system of nitrogen molecules (N2(C3Πu) enhanced significantly. It can be concluded that in Ar- plasma discharge, argon metastables are the main energy carriers but when N2 gas is added to the feeding gas (Ar) for plasma generation, the second positive system of nitrogen molecules (N2(C3Πu) become the main energy carriers. On the other hand the addition of the N2 gas doesn’t change the electrical characteristics of plasma discharge significantly. To identify the effectiveness of the CAPPLAT as a tool for sterilization, highly environmental stress resistant bacterial (Bacillus subtilis) endospores were treated for different durations. We could successfully deactivate the population of 1.0X107 to 4.0X107 Bacillus endospores/ml. The details of this experiment are discussed in our next paper.