Plasma-activated water and aerosol for surface pathogen disinfection

This thesis presents an efficient and miniaturize technology employing microscale & nanoscale induced plasma-activated water and aerosol for surface pathogen disinfection. Specifically, the experimental studies showed that bacterial suspensions can be disinfected using low power MHz acoustic waves with plasma-activated water (PAW). As PAW degrades over time, nanoscale plasma and aerosol generation system were to disinfect surface pathogen on-site, eliminating storage issues. As PAW gets more potent, significant reduction in the nebulization rate was observed. The SAW nebulizer was coated with a thin insulating layer of silicon dioxide, decreasing the reduction of nebulization rate in very potent PAW significantly. As conventional nebulizers tends to produce aerosol plume that disperses, electrospraying of plasma-activated aerosol was demonstrated a more efficient and targeted metal surface pathogen disinfection.