The Influence of Different Plasma Cell Discharges on the Performance Quality of Surgical Gown Samples.

Atif H Asghar,Ahmed Rida Galaly

doi:10.3390/ma14154329

Abstract

An experimental study was performed on a low-density plasma discharge using two different configurations of the plasma cell cathode, namely, the one mesh system electrodes (OMSE) and the one mesh and three system electrodes (OMTSE), to determine the electrical characteristics of the plasma such as current–voltage characteristics, breakdown voltage (VB), Paschen curves, current density (J), cathode fall thickness (dc), and electron density of the treated sample. The influence of the electrical characteristics of the plasma fluid in the cathode fall region for different cathode configuration cells (OMSE and OMTSE) on the performance quality of a surgical gown was studied to determine surface modification, treatment efficiency, exposure time, wettability property, and mechanical properties. Over a very short exposure time, the treatment efficiency for the surgical gown surface of plasma over the mesh cathode at a distance equivalent to the cathode fall distance dc values of the OMTSE and for OMSE reached a maximum. The wettability property decreased from 90 to 40% for OMTSE over a 180 s exposure time and decreased from 90 to 10% for OMSE over a 160 s exposure time. The mechanisms of each stage of surgical gown treatment by plasma are described. In this study, the mechanical properties of the untreated and treated surgical gown samples such as the tensile strength and elongation percentage, ultimate tensile strength, yield strength, strain hardening, resilience, toughness, and fracture (breaking) point were studied. Plasma had a more positive effect on the mechanical properties of the OMSE reactor than those of the OMTSE reactor.

Highlights

For 50 years, the direct current (DC) glow discharge has actively contributed to the fundamental phenomena [1,2] of practical plasma processes that modify material properties, such as plasma–surface modification, plasma polymerization, sterilization, and industrial applications, more so than radio frequency (RF) power sources [3,4].DC cold plasma technologies using low-density weakly ionized argon plasma have been widely used in chemical, physical, and biological applications because of their surface modification effect
The uniform argon plasma discharges in the one mesh system electrodes (OMSE) and one mesh and three system electrodes (OMTSE) reactors were compared by a study of electrical characteristics such as current–voltage, breakdown voltage (VB ), Paschen curves, current density (J), and cathode fall thickness as follows
In the OMSE reactor the optimum position of the sample with respect to the mesh was found to correspond to the cathode fall thickness and the smallest value of the current density suitable to modify the surface of the fabric sample

Summary

Introduction

For 50 years, the direct current (DC) glow discharge has actively contributed to the fundamental phenomena [1,2] of practical plasma processes that modify material properties, such as plasma–surface modification, plasma polymerization, sterilization, and industrial applications, more so than radio frequency (RF) power sources [3,4].DC cold plasma technologies using low-density weakly ionized argon plasma have been widely used in chemical, physical, and biological applications because of their surface modification effect. The influence of configurations; electrode design parameters (cathode geometries, mesh cathode, hollow cathode, magnetized cathode, cavity cathode, etc.); and parameters of the plasma reactor such as the ion velocity, plasma density distribution, plasma kinetics, performance near the emission boundary, gas type, frequency, and flow rates have been investigated in studies related to surgical gown quality. Medical applications such as the etching process, coating process, and inactivation of microbial processes have been investigated [7,8,9]

Objectives

Results

Conclusion