Division of Environmental Physics - User: student
Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics, Comenius University Bratislava

Decontamination of Bacillus cereus Spores and Streptococci Biofilms on Plastic Surfaces with DC and Pulsed Corona Discharges

Kovaľová Z., Tarabová K., Hensel K., Machala Z.
Electroporation Workshop 2015: From basics knowledge to industry, co-organized by COST TD1104 EP4Bio2Med and LEA-EBAM, Toulouse, France, 14-15 Apr, p. x (2015)

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Abstract:

Biological decontamination of thermo-sensitive plastic materials used in medicine or in food packaging, from bacterial spores, biofilms, and other resistant microbial pathogens represents a technological challenge. We applied non-thermal (cold) air plasmas generated by DC and pulsed corona discharges - positive streamers and negative Trichel pulses - and tested them for eradication of Bacillus cereus spores and Streptococci biofilm on polypropylene plastic surfaces. The results show that both polarities of DC and pulsed coronas can reduce the spore or bacterial population in the biofilm up to 2-3 logs in 10 min exposure time. No significant polarity effect was found with DC corona. Pulsed corona was demonstrated slightly more bactericidal for spores, especially in the negative polarity. [1] The 3-log bactericidal effect can be reached faster (within 2 min) when applying electrostatic spraying of water through the discharge [2] onto the treated spore/biofilm contaminated surfaces. We attribute this significant enhancement of plasma combined with electrospraying of water to the enhancement of the mass transfer of the air plasma generated reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (OH•, H2O2, O2-•, O3, NOx) into water inducing chemical changes in water related to strong biocidal effects [3]. The same air plasma discharges were demonstrated to efficiently inactivate oral biofilms grown on teeth without any damaging effect of tooth surface composition and structure, which represent new potential application in dentistry [4].

Acknowledgement
This work was supported by Slovak Research and Development Agency APVV-0134-12.

References
[1] Kovaľová Z, Tarabová K, Hensel K and Machala Z 2013 Eur. Phys. J. Appl. Phys. 61 24306.
[2] Pongrác B, Kim H H, Janda M, Martišovitš V, Machala Z 2014 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 43 315202.
[3] Machala Z, Tarabová B, Hensel K, Špetlíková E, Šikurová L and Lukeš P 2013 Plasma Process. Polym. 10 649.
[4] Kovaľová Z, Zahoran M, Zahoranová A and Machala Z 2014 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 47 224014.