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Characteristics of Portable Air Floating-Electrode Dielectric-Barrier-Discharge Plasmas Used for Biomedicine

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Abstract

In this study, a portable air floating-electrode dielectric-barrier-discharge (FE-DBD) plasma generator has been developed with a weight of less than 200 g and a volume of less than 480 cm3. Considering the equivalent impedance of human body (EIHB), an equivalent circuit model is developed that couples the FE-DBD generator and the EIHB module to determine the thickness of the dielectric barrier layers of the plasma generator, taking into account the electrical safety for human body during air discharges. The thermal and optical characteristics of the air discharges are also studied showing stable and thermal safety and abundant reactive oxygen and nitrogen species. Furthermore, with a view to biomedical applications of the air FE-DBD plasmas, a dosimetric experimental model using human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK293) cells is proposed to simulate the interactions between the air FE-DBD plasmas and the human body. In this model, the cell culture medium works as the floating electrode and is connected to the EIHB module. The LD50 value, which is the medium lethal dose based on the concept of drug dosage in pharmacy using the FE-DBD plasma source, is measured for a quantitative evaluation of the cytotoxicity after plasma treatment. This study provides a device physical safety and dosage evaluation method for the portable air FE-DBD plasma generator which is helpful for promoting the clinical applications of this type, and even other types of CAP sources.

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All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper. Additional data related to this paper may be requested from the authors.

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Acknowledgements

This work has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 12205163, 11475103, 10972119), Tsinghua Precision Medicine Foundation (Nos. 10001020119, 2022TS015), Tsinghua University Initiative Scientific Research Program (Nos. 20229990132, 20182000306).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Lu-Xiang Zhao

  2. Department of Engineering Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Heng-Xin Zhao & He-Ping Li

  3. School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Hao Chen & Yu Zhang

  4. Department of Vascular Surgery, The First Hospital of Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100016, China

    Chang Hu

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Contributions

Conceptualization, L.-X.Z., Y.Z. and H.-P.L.; methodology, C.H., Y.Z., H.-P.L., and L.-X.Z.; software, H.-X.Z., L.-X.Z. and H.C.; validation, H.-X.Z., L.-X.Z. and H.C.; formal analysis, H.-X.Z., and L.-X.Z.; investigation, H.-X.Z., L.-X.Z. and H.C.; resources, H.-X.Z., L.-X.Z. and H.C.; data curation, H.-X.Z., L.-X.Z. and H.C.; writing—original draft preparation, H.-X.Z. and L.-X.Z.; writing—review and editing, C.H., Y.Z. and H.-P.L.; visualization, H.-X.Z. and H.C.; supervision, Y.Z. and H.-P.L.; funding acquisition, Y.Z. and H.-P.L. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yu Zhang or He-Ping Li.

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L.-X. Zhao and H.-X. Zhao contributed equally to this work.

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Zhao, LX., Zhao, HX., Chen, H. et al. Characteristics of Portable Air Floating-Electrode Dielectric-Barrier-Discharge Plasmas Used for Biomedicine. Plasma Chem Plasma Process 43, 1567–1585 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11090-023-10384-1

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