Session: 17-01-01: Research Posters

Paper Number: 150095

150095 - Plasma-Wound Interaction: Plasma Characterization to Validate Radicals and Identify Plasma Temperature Variations 

Recent studies show that Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) plasma plays a significant role in wound therapies through its production of reactive oxygen and nitrogen radicals (RONS). Experiments reveal that exposing a wound surface to an atmospheric DBD plasma jet can greatly accelerate the wound healing and sterilization process. The measurement of these radicals along with plasma temperatures (electronic, rotational, vibrational and translational temperatures) is important to optimize the healing and sterilization process. High plasma temperatures may damage cells whereas low plasma temperatures may not have enough radicals required to initiate the healing process showing that the optimization of plasma temperatures is highly important for the usage of DBD plasma in a medical setting.  DBD plasma is typically generated between two electrodes separated by an insulator as a high voltage (5-10kV at 40-60 kHz) is applied across them. One important feature of DBD plasma is its ability to generate plasma jets at atmospheric pressure which makes it possible to expose it to the wound surface directly by eliminating the requirements of a vacuum chamber. For the purpose of characterizing different plasma parameters, emission spectroscopy and a Langmuir probe were used. Emission spectroscopy was used in conjunction with SPECAIR to analyze spectrometer readings from an Ocean Optics UV-IR spectrometer under different operating conditions. Estimating the multiple plasma temperatures has provided results on the operating conditions required to observe the highest concentration of RONS. Our work shows that an addition of oxygen and nitrogen (0.05% to 0.5%) by volume to the existing plasma can increase radical concentrations. This was observed by the variation of multiple peaks in the emission spectrum. It was found that nitrogen addition was able to strengthen the nitrogen second positive system along with OH radicals. Similarly the addition of oxygen gas had a significant impact on the emission plasma as stronger oxygen emission lines were generated. Impact on the various plasma temperatures was also observed. Typical values of plasma temperature estimated in this work clearly indicate a non thermal/non equilibrium plasma that is required for wound healing. Additionally, a Langmuir probe was used to measure the plasma electron temperatures and electron number densities at various operating conditions. Langmuir probe technology is conventionally used in subatmospheric conditions but our setup has adapted to use this technology in atmospheric pressure conditions. Current Langmuir probe results indicate that the electron temperature is around 1eV but this is being verified with further experiments. Completed results with the necessary figures and graphs will be provided on the poster.

Presenting Author: Aryan Tummala BASIS Independent Silicon Valley

Presenting Author Biography: High School Researcher working under Dr. Zaidi at San Jose State University

Authors:

Aryan Tummala BASIS Independent Silicon Valley
Sohail Zaidi San Jose State University