Sterilization of Medical Equipment Using Oxygen Radicals Produced by Water Vapor RF Plasma.
- Resource Type
- Article
- Authors
- Hayashi, Nobuya; Tsutsui, Shinsuke; Tomari, Tetsushi; Weimin Guan
- Source
- IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science. Aug2008 Part 1 of 5, Vol. 36 Issue 4, p1302-1303. 2p. 1 Black and White Photograph.
- Subject
- *STERILIZATION (Disinfection)
*PLASMA gases
*MEDICAL equipment safety measures
*REACTIVE oxygen species
*BIOMEDICAL materials
*PRECIPITABLE water
*HYDROXYL group
*RADICALS (Chemistry)
*BACTERIOLOGY technique
- Language
- ISSN
- 0093-3813
A safe and clean method of sterilizing medical equipment is proposed, which uses radicals produced by RF plasma. The plasma source gas for the sterilization is water vapor, which produces hydroxyl radicals upon the RF discharge. The inactivation of bacillus on medical equipment by water vapor plasma at a temperature below 55 °C gives a decimal reduction value of 26 min. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]