Repeatability of cold atmospheric pressure plasma experiments for biological inactivation applications

Research related to non-thermal atmospheric pressure plasma sources and technologies is currently focused on emerging applications in medicine and biology. As in any other plasma application, the efficacy of the plasma treatment depends on various discharge operating conditions such as temperature, humidity, discharge geometry, dissipated power and feed gas composition, all of which influence chemical and physical processes in the discharge. In addition, attention needs to be paid to the various methods in which biological ‘targets’ are prepared and presented to the plasma as these can have a profound influence on the treatment efficacy. Currently, different laboratories around the world use a wide variety of plasma devices and microbiological techniques, making a direct and quantitative comparison of experimental results virtually impossible.