The role of humidity and UV-C emission in the inactivation of \(\textit {B. subtilis}\) spores during atmospheric-pressure dielectric barrier discharge treatment
- Experiments are performed to assess the inactivation of \(\textit {Bacillus subtilis}\) spores using a non-thermal atmospheric-pressure dielectric barrier discharge. The plasma source used in this study is mounted inside a vacuum vessel and operated in controlled gas mixtures. In this context, spore inactivation is measured under varying nitrogen/oxygen and humidity content and compared to spore inactivation using ambient air. Operating the dielectric barrier discharge in a sealed vessel offers the ability to distinguish between possible spore inactivation mechanisms since different process gas mixtures lead to the formation of distinct reactive species. The UV irradiance and the ozone density within the plasma volume are determined applying spectroscopic diagnostics with neither found to fully correlate with spore inactivation. It is found that spore inactivation is most strongly correlated with the humidity content in the feed gas, implying that reactive species formed, either directly or indirectly, from water molecules are strong mediators of spore inactivation.
| Author: | Friederike KogelheideORCiDGND, Farina VoigtGND, Bastian HillebrandGND, Ralf MoellerGND, Felix FuchsORCiDGND, Andrew R. GibsonORCiDGND, Peter AwakowiczORCiDGND, Katharina StapelmannORCiDGND, Marcel FiebrandtORCiDGND |
|---|---|
| URN: | urn:nbn:de:hbz:294-87946 |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6463/ab77cc |
| Parent Title (English): | Journal of physics : D, Applied physics |
| Publisher: | IOP Publ. |
| Place of publication: | Bristol |
| Document Type: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Date of Publication (online): | 2022/03/29 |
| Date of first Publication: | 2020/05/19 |
| Publishing Institution: | Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universitätsbibliothek |
| Tag: | Bacillus subtilis spores; atmospheric pressure; controlled atmosphere; dielectric barrier discharge; inactivation experiments; spectroscopy |
| Volume: | 53 |
| Issue: | 29, Article 295201 |
| First Page: | 295201-1 |
| Last Page: | 295201-13 |
| Institutes/Facilities: | Lehrstuhl für Allgemeine Elektrotechnik und Plasmatechnik |
| open_access (DINI-Set): | open_access |
| faculties: | Fakultät für Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik |
| Licence (English): |  Creative Commons - CC BY 4.0 - Attribution 4.0 International |
