Decontamination of Heat-Sensitive Polymer Surfaces Using Low Temperature Plasma Technology

摘要

Advanced atmospheric plasma processes offer an enormous technological potential to control adhesion and to inactivate microorganisms on polymeric surfaces. In this contribution, two plasma sources developed for the antimicrobial treatment but also suitable for adhesion control for different products are presented. The plasma sources are designed in order to fulfill the requirements of the desired decontamination process as well as the properties of the products to be decontaminated. An atmospheric microwave-driven plasma in ambient air is applied to disinfect interior surfaces of plastic packages, e.g., PET-bottles. These bottles can be decontaminated by treatment with pulsed plasmas with a pulse duration of only a few seconds. Thus the method appears to be suitable for implementation in an in-line filling process for PET-bottles.Another example presented here is an RF-driven plasma jet in argon at atmospheric pressure. This plasma source is applied to treat the outer surfaces of medical products, in particular catheters with electrodes at the tip used for minimal invasive intracardiac electrophysiological diagnostic (ECG). This plasma jet is very compact in design and can be easily used to build large modules. The modules can be adapted to nearly any complex 3-dimensional structure which consists in the case of catheters of the hub, the shaft and the tip. The microbicidal activity of the plasma jet is verified and studied by treating contaminated plastic test strips. Microorganism population can be reduced by more than four orders of magnitude. Additionally, microplasmas created this way are able to penetrate even in narrow gaps. Heat-sensitive products with complex shaped surfaces can be treated for a wide variety of applications. In particular, the wettability of surfaces forming small structures with high aspect ratios can be altered by means of plasma jet treatment.