Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
Environ Sci Technol. 2012 Mar 20;46(6):3360-8. doi: 10.1021/es203770q. Epub 2012 Mar 8.
Here, nonthermal plasma generated by a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) system was applied to inactivating aerosolized Bacillus subtilis cells and Pseudomonas fluorescens as well as indoor and outdoor bioaerosols. The culturability, viability, and diversity losses of the microorganisms in air samples treated by the plasma for 0.06-0.12 s were studied using culturing, DNA stain as well as polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE) methods. In addition, the viable fraction of bacterial aerosols with and without the plasma treatment was also quantified using qPCR coupled with ethidium monoazide (EMA). It was shown that less than 2% of B. subtilis aerosols survived the plasma treatment of 0.12 s, while none of the P. fluorescens aerosols survived. Viability tests, EMA-qPCR results, and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) images demonstrated that both bacterial species suffered significant viability loss, membrane, and DNA damages. Exposure of environmental bacterial and fungal aerosols to the plasma for 0.06 s also resulted in their significant inactivations, more than 95% for bacteria and 85-98% for fungal species. PCR-DGGE analysis showed that plasma exposure of 0.06 s resulted in culturable bacterial aerosol diversity loss for both environments, especially pronounced for indoor environment. The results here demonstrate that nonthermal plasma exposure could offer a highly efficient air decontamination technology.
在这里，使用介质阻挡放电（DBD）系统产生的非热等离子体来灭活雾化的枯草芽孢杆菌细胞和荧光假单胞菌以及室内和室外的生物气溶胶。使用培养、DNA 染色和聚合酶链反应-变性梯度凝胶电泳（PCR-DGGE）方法研究了等离子体处理 0.06-0.12 s 的空气样本中的微生物的可培养性、生存能力和多样性损失。此外，还使用 qPCR 结合吖啶橙（EMA）定量了有和没有等离子体处理的细菌气溶胶的活菌分数。结果表明，不到 2%的枯草芽孢杆菌气溶胶能在 0.12 s 的等离子体处理中存活，而荧光假单胞菌气溶胶则无一存活。活力测试、EMA-qPCR 结果和扫描电子显微镜（SEM）图像表明，这两种细菌都遭受了严重的活力损失、细胞膜和 DNA 损伤。将环境细菌和真菌气溶胶暴露于等离子体 0.06 s 也导致其显著失活，细菌的失活率超过 95%，真菌的失活率为 85-98%。PCR-DGGE 分析表明，等离子体暴露 0.06 s 导致两种环境中可培养细菌气溶胶多样性丧失，室内环境尤为明显。结果表明，非热等离子体暴露可以提供一种高效的空气净化技术。
