Study of The Sterlization of Nonwoven Webs Using One Atmosphere Glow Discharge Plasma, 1996 Nonwovens Conference Proceedings
J. Reece Roth and Yongmin Ku
UTK Plasma Science Laboratory
Peter P. Tsai, Larry C. Wadsworth,
and Qin Sun & Thomas C. Montie and Kimberly, Kelly-Wintenberg
UTK
Preliminary results have shown that exposure to a one atmosphere uniform glow discharge plasma s t e r i l i z e f i l t e r p a p e r s . The efficiency of sterilization depends on operating parameters, such as frequency, voltage and exposure time. Treatment time of less than one minute was used to sterilize f i l t e r p a p e r seeded with Staphylococcus aureus under plasma operating conditions which produced sufficiently high plasma number densities and fluxes of plasma active species. This exposure time of a nonwoven web is much shorter than the conventional treatment time using ethylene oxide, autoclaving and y-radiation. The results of sterilization of nonwoven fabrics will be presented in this paper. The sterilization mechanisms will be discussed.
Study of The Sterlization of Nonwoven Webs Using One Atmosphere Glow Discharge Plasma, 1996 Nonwoven