In this study, our goal was to develop a contact lens sterilization device using non-thermal plasma. Three types of sterilization devices, a plasma-container-separated type (Ver. 1), a screw electrode type (Ver. 2), and a plasma actuator type (Ver. 3), were constructed and the electrical, chemical, and flow characteristics were investigated. Ver. 2 and Ver. 3 showed a good sterilization performance. The sterilization time was 2 minutes in air for both Ver. 2 and Ver. 3. In water, sterilization times were 30 minutes for Ver. 2 and 25 minutes for Ver. 3, because the chemical reactive species generated by these two devices were transported by the gas and water flows in the contact lens case. The effect of pH was also investigated, and we found that the low pH value with other reactive species such as ozone were important for sterilization. Finally, we propose a safe, small, and low power consumption device with high contact lens sterilization performance using plasma.
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