Plasma technology being tapped as decontamination agent

Researchers from China’s Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Huazhong University of Science and Technology are tapping into plasma technology to kill biofilms on perishable fruit and foods. Based on their study of how air plasma interacts with bacterial biofilms on an apple’s surface, researchers found that plasma technology could be used as a decontamination agent.

A report on the study was published in the journal Physics of Plasmas.

Phys.org reports more about the study:

The fundamental concept behind the team’s work is to harness the reactive species generated by plasma to kill bacterial biofilms, which are notoriously difficult to wipe out.

In terms of applications, the team’s work indicates that air plasma can be used to kill bacteria within biofilms, which could “significantly prolong the amount of time fruit remains edible,” said Lu. Such a technique could be on the market within a few years, “once a low-cost plasma source is developed.”

The next step toward using low-temperature plasma technology for the decontamination of fruit is “to generate a uniform plasma over the irregular surface of the fruit, or to use a plasma jet to scan the surface of the fruit,” Lu noted.

Read more at Phys.org.