Air sterilization and treatment by non-thermal atmospheric plasma

Abstract

Air purification is critical to mitigating the challenges of airborne pathogen transmission and protecting the public health since the COVID-19 pandemic. In this work, a novel porous alumina dielectric barrier discharge source integrated plasma air sterilization and treatment apparatus is fabricated to sterilize airborne pathogens under various discharge conditions, two air flow rates and test times. Results show that the dielectric barrier discharge plasma apparatus has a dual function of physical filtration and plasma sterilization to airborne pathogens. The plasma inactivation level depends on the discharge voltage, air flow rate and test time, and can reach a reduction up to 2.5 log when a full glowing plasma source is used for 45 min. Study of optical emission spectra and ozone concentration measurements reveals that the plasma generated ozone species and UV irradiation may play a critical role in the air sterilization.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Rodolphe Hervé: orcid.org/0000-0001-8838-6515

ORCID for Minkwan Kim: orcid.org/0000-0002-6192-312X

ORCID for John Lawson: orcid.org/0000-0003-3260-3538

ORCID for Bharath Ganapathisubramani: orcid.org/0000-0001-9817-0486

ORCID for Charles William Keevil: orcid.org/0000-0003-1917-7706

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