IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 46, NO.
4, APRIL 2018
A Two-Mode Portable Atmospheric Pressure Air
Plasma Jet Device for Biomedical Applications
Nan Xu, Xinglei Cui, Zhi Fang , Senior Member, IEEE, Yaowei Shi, and Ruoyu Zhou
Abstract— In this paper, a low-cost and portable plasma device
is developed to generate atmospheric pressure nonthermal air
plasma jet for safe and effective biomedical applications. The
device mainly consists of a pen electrode, a high-frequency ac
power supply, an ac/dc module, and a dc air pump, and it
totally costs only U.S. $63 and has a small size of 280 mm ×
190 mm × 180 mm. The appearance of two-mode discharge
of half-wave and full-wave breakdown with the changing of
applied voltage is identified, and the length of the plasma jet is
optimized through studying on the influences of distance between
two electrodes, gas flow rates, and hole diameters of the gas
outflow in ground electrode. Stronger plasma with a longer jet
length of 12 mm can be obtained in the full-wave breakdown
discharge mode, while moderate plasma with a length of 8 mm
can be obtained in the half-wave breakdown discharge mode.
The discharge characteristics of the device such as the main
generated active particle, voltage and current, discharge power,
and operation temperature are obtained. It is shown that rich
active species for biomedical application can be generated at low
power of approximate 2 W and low operation temperature of
approximate 40 °C. The developed device is tested for biomedical
application, and the results of effective sterilization of C. albicans
and blood coagulation are obtained.
Index Terms— Coagulation, nonthermal plasma, plasma appli-
cation, plasma medicine, sterilization.
I. I NTRODUCTION
I N THE field of biomedicine, most of the conventional
treatment techniques, such as high-temperature steriliza-
tion, chemical coagulation, and disinfection, can achieve good
results, but they also have some limitations, for instance,
long treatment time, chemical leftover, and second pollu-
tion [1]–[3]. In the past decade, atmospheric pressure non-
thermal plasma has caught much attention as a novel and safe
tool for biomedical treatment applications to overcome the lim-
itations of the conventional treatment methods [4]–[7]. It can
treat the biomedical targets efficiently at room temperature
by using the generated active species, without causing treated
substrate damage, chemical leftover, and pollution, especially
suitable for sterilization and coagulation applications [8]–[13].
Manuscript received July 13, 2017; revised January 25, 2018; accepted
February 17, 2018. Date of publication March 8, 2018; date of current version
April 10, 2018. This work was supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China under Grant 51377075. The review of this paper was
arranged by Senior Editor S. J. Gitomer. (Corresponding author: Zhi Fang.)
The authors are with the College of Electrical Engineering and Con-
trol Science, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 210009, China (e-mail:
myfz@263.net).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPS.2018.2810142
0093-3813 © 2018 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
947
The use of atmospheric pressure nonthermal plasma for ster-
ilization, disinfection, blood coagulation, wound healing, etc.,
has been investigated and obtained some achievements by sev-
eral groups, and some novel atmospheric pressure nonthermal
plasma devices which employ various types of gas discharge
have also been developed [5], [14]–[16]. Chang and Chen [17]
reported a novel low-temperature atmospheric pressure device
based on dielectric barrier discharge and used it to inacti-
vate oral bacteria. Fridman et al. [18] developed a floating-
electrode dielectric barrier discharge which can be touched
safely by human body and used it for blood coagulation and
living tissue sterilization. Chakravarthy et al. [19] reported a
cold spark discharge atmospheric pressure plasma device, and
they used it to suppress the progress of inflammatory bowel
disease. Weltmann et al. [20] reported a handheld atmospheric
pressure plasma jet device for medical therapy applications.
Kang et al. [21] reported a portable microwave air plasma
device for wound healing. Pei et al. [22] reported a room
temperature, battery-operated, and handheld air plasma jet
device, and applied it to effectively inactivate multilayered
E. faecalis biofilms. Wu et al. [23] reported a touchable
pulsed air plasma plume device and used it to kill E. faecalis
effectively. Up to now, several devices based on various kinds
of discharge, driving power supply, and working gases have
been successfully tested for biomedical applications, while it
is of great interesting and important to develop a portable
nonthermal plasma device with low cost and miniaturization,
which can also treat biomedical targets safely with flexibility.
In this paper, a low-cost and portable plasma device is
developed to generate atmospheric pressure nonthermal air
plasma jet for biomedical applications. The appearance of two-
mode discharge of half-wave and full-wave breakdown with
the changing of applied voltage is identified, and the length of
the plasma jet is optimized through studying on the influences
of several key parameters. The discharge characteristics of
the device such as the main generated active species, voltage
and current, discharge power, and operation temperature are
obtained, and sterilization of C. albicans and blood coagula-
tion using the developed device are carried out to verify its
performance.
II. A IR J ET D EVICE
Fig. 1 shows the schematic and photographs of the device.
The air plasma jet device is mainly composed of four parts:
a high-frequency ac power supply (Dengwang Inc., HV-30),
948
Fig. 1. Schematic and photographs of the device. (a) Schematic and the experimental setup. (b) Photograph of the air jet touched by a finger. (c) Photograph
of inside accessories of the device. (d) Photograph of the total device.
a pen electrode, an ac/dc module (Philips, ADPC1936), and a
dc air pump (Jinan Inc., TMJ-3601), as shown in Fig. 1(a). The
high-frequency ac power supply has a peak adjustable voltage
value from 0 to 2 kV and frequency of 40 kHz, and its output
is connected to the pen electrode directly. The pen electrode
consists of a stainless steel needle (diameter: 1 mm and length:
65 mm) as high-voltage electrode and a coaxial cylinder
ground electrode (diameter: 4 mm and height: 4 mm) with
one end of it being sealed and centrally perforated with a hole.
The grounded electrode is made of brass with cone shaped
inside facing the tip of the needle high-voltage electrode to
produce uneven electric field for generating plasma easily
at lower applied voltage. A polytetrafluoroethylene tube is
inserted between the high-voltage electrode and the grounded
electrode to fasten and insulate them, and two air flow ways are
drilled on it to let the air flow through them. The breakdown
is generated between the tip of the high-voltage electrode and
the inside of the ground electrode, and is flown into ambient
atmosphere to form air jet through the hole in the ground
electrode. The generated plasma jet can be touched safely by
human body, as shown in Fig. 1(b). The air flow is provided
by a microair dc pump which is powered by an ac/dc power
module. A relay is used to control the switch of the high-
frequency ac power supply and the ac/dc power module.
The device is a compact and portable one, as shown
in Fig. 1(c) and (d). All the part is put into a shell with a size
of 280 mm × 190 mm × 180 mm, leaving the pen electrode
out of it and connected through a pluggable interface, and
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 46, NO. 4, APRIL 2018
the total weight of the device is less than 2 kg. The device
is also low cost, and its total cost is only U.S. $63 (with the
high-frequency ac power supply of U.S. $18, dc air pump of
U.S. $7, pen electrode of U.S. $7, ac/dc module of U.S. $4,
shell box of U.S. $17, machine and other small accessories
of U.S. $10).
III. C HARACTERISTICS AND O PTIMUM OF THE A IR J ET
The characteristics of the air jet such as its plasma
length, discharge power, generated active species, and oper-
ation temperature are important parameters which reflect
its performance and also determine the result treatment
effects [24]–[26]. For the air jet, they can be mainly influ-
enced and determined by the applied voltage, air flow rate,
the distance between two electrodes and the hole diameter of
the gas outflow in ground electrode, and the experiments are
carried out to investigate the influence of these parameters
on the discharge characteristics, and thus to optimize the
operation parameters of the device. Detailed experimental
setups are given in Fig. 1(a), and various used parameters are:
the distance between two electrodes (1–6 mm), applied peak
voltage (0–2 kV), gas flow rates (3–10 slm), and hole diameter
of the gas outflow (4 and 6–10 mm). The current and voltage
waveforms are recorded by a digital oscilloscope (TDS-3054,
bandwidth: 500 MHz and sampling frequency: 5 GHz), and
they are measured with a current coil (Pearson 4100) and
a high-voltage probe (Tek P6015), respectively. The plasma
jet length is determined from the discharge images which
XU et al.: TWO-MODE PORTABLE ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE AIR PLASMA JET DEVICE
are captured by a digital camera (Canon 6-D) from the
side of the plasma plume. The broadband optical emission
spectra (from 200 to 1100 nm) of the discharge are mea-
sured by an optical spectrometer (Ocean Optics HR4000CG,
resolution: 0.75 nm). The temperature of the pen electrode
is measured with an infrared temperature instrument (Victor
303B, emissivity: 0.95).
The influence of applied voltage on the discharge charac-
teristics is investigated by changing the voltage amplitude,
and the distance between two electrodes is 5 mm, the air
flow rate is 5 slm, and the hole diameter is 0.8 mm. The
discharge occurs when the applied voltage between the two
electrodes reaches breakdown voltage value, and it is ejected
out of the pen electrode through the hole and forms plasma jet
in atmospheric pressure air by the gas flow. Typical voltage–
current waveform and photograph of the two discharge modes
are shown in Fig. 2. When the peak applied voltage between
two electrodes is up to 1 kV or slight higher, the discharge
is in half-wave breakdown discharge mode. In this case, the
discharge only occurs once in the negative half cycle, while no
breakdown is observed in the positive half cycle. The discharge
current pluses appear once in each negative half cycle of the
applied voltage, and obvious distortion in the negative half
cycle voltage waveform is observed during the breakdown,
as shown in Fig. 2(a). The peak value of the discharge current
is 0.06 A, and the length of the jet is found to be 8 mm.
Further increases the applied voltage to certain value (1.5 kV),
the discharge transits to full-wave breakdown discharge mode.
In this case, the discharge occurs twice and the discharge
current pluses appear both in the positive and in the negative
half cycles of applied voltage. The voltage waveform is found
to distort in each half cycle of the applied voltage, and the
peak voltage decreases to 1.25 kV during breakdown, as shown
in Fig. 2(b). For this mode, the peak value of the discharge
current is increased to 0.15 A, and the length of the jet is
increased to 12 mm.
The two discharge modes are depended on the amplitude
of the applied voltage. At a lower applied voltage, the half-
wave mode occurs with only one breakdown in negative
circle. At a higher applied voltage, the full-wave mode occurs
with breakdowns in both positive and negative half cycles.
It is because the asymmetry electrode configuration results in
an uneven electric field. The ionization by corona discharge
occurs in negative circle of the applied voltage first, due to
the lower ignition voltage of the negative corona compared
with that of the positive corona [27]. With the gas flow blows
the positive ions near the tip of the high-voltage electrode
to the ground electrode, the electric field is disturbed and
the microdischarge occurs, which also results in the distortion
of the voltage waveform in conjunction with current pulses,
as shown in Fig. 2(a). With further increase of the applied
voltage, the ionization also occurs in positive circle of the
applied voltage, resulting in breakdowns in both positive and
negative half cycles. The discharge power can be obtained
from the measured voltage and current data by integrating of
the voltage and current product [28], and they are 1.78 and
2.13 W for the half-wave and full-wave breakdown discharge
modes, respectively. So both the two modes of the discharge
949
Fig. 2. Voltage and current waveforms and discharge photographs of
the (a) half-wave breakdown discharge mode and (b) full-wave breakdown
discharge mode.
of the device are operating in low power. In summary, with
the increase of the applied voltage, two discharge modes are
observed. Stronger plasma with higher discharge power and
longer jet length can be obtained in full-wave breakdown
discharge mode at higher applied voltage, while plasma with
moderate discharge power and shorter jet length can be
obtained in the half-wave breakdown discharge mode at lower
applied voltage. The reported two modes offer good options
for intense or moderate atmospheric pressure economic air
jet plasma sources, which have great potential for biomedical
applications and materials processing.
The length of the plasma jet is an important parameter
which can influence its treatment effect. It is found during
our experiments that the length of the plasma jet shows nearly
no change with the increasing of applied voltage both for the
half-wave breakdown discharge mode and for the full-wave
breakdown discharge mode, while it can be largely influenced
by the air flow rate, the distance between two electrodes and
the hole diameter. So the influences of these three parameters
on the length of the plasma jet are investigated when the
peak applied voltage is fixed at 1.5 kV, and variations of the
jet length and photograph with these parameters are shown
in Fig. 3. It can be seen from Fig. 3 that the jet length increases
first with the increasing of these three parameters, and then
reaches its maximum value at certain values of these three
parameters, respectively. The maximum length of the jet is
12 mm, which is obtained at a gas flow rate of 5 slm, hole
diameter of 0.8 mm, and the distance between two electrodes
of 5 mm.
Optical emission spectroscopy is used to identify various
plasma species generated in two modes of the air jet. The
spectra are detected at the side of the ejected plasma jet, and
950 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 46, NO. 4, APRIL 2018

Fig. 3. Variation of the jet length and photographs with (a) different distances between electrodes (gas flow rate of 5 slm and hole diameter of 0.7 mm),
(b) gas flow rates (distance between electrodes of 5 mm and hole diameter of 0.7 mm), and (c) hole diameters (gas flow rate of 5 slm and distance between
electrodes of 5 mm).

the optical fiber is located at the position of 5 mm of the

plasma jet. Fig. 4 shows the emission spectra observed in two
discharge modes. The operation conditions of Fig. 4(a) and (b)
correspond to those in Fig. 2(a) and (b), respectively. Vari-
ous chemical species covering a wide range of wavelengths
of 300–850 nm can be identified. Intensive N2 second
(C3u –B3g ) positive systems are found in the spectral region
of 310–390 nm [29]. N+ 2 + 2 +
2 (B u –X g ) can be found
in 391.3 and 427.4 nm [30]. In the 306–310-nm region,
spectral line from OH (308 nm) is identified [29]. Apart
from the previously mentioned lines, spectral lines from
oxygen radicals (777 and 844 nm), ionized nitrogen mole-
cules (390–480 nm), and atomic nitrogen (747, 822, and
868 nm) can also be identified [31]–[34]. Previous studies
reported that these highly reactive species are effective agents
in application of the jet plasma such as in sterilization, disin-
fection, and coagulation [17], [21], [35], [36]. It is also noted
in Fig. 4 that the overall spectrum is very similar for both dis-
charge modes, but emission intensities of these species for the
full-wave breakdown discharge mode are stronger than those
of the half-wave breakdown discharge mode. The optical inten-
sity of the nitrogen (337.1 nm) for the full-wave breakdown
discharge mode is found to approximately 1.5 times larger
than that of the half-wave breakdown discharge mode, and
the O emission (844 nm) lines is 2.8 times larger. The optical Fig. 4. Optical emission spectra of air plasma jet in (a) half-wave breakdown
emission intensity can be employed as an indirect indication discharge mode and (b) full-wave breakdown discharge mode.
of reactive species, and hence the chemistry of the plasma,
so the results suggest that the jet in the full-wave breakdown instrument at the position M (see Fig. 5) which is 10 mm away
discharge mode can produce intense plasma with rich species. from the hole. It can be seen that the temperature increases
For the biomedical applications of air plasma jet, the oper- with the increasing of operation times, and then reaches its
ating temperature of the plasma is an important factor must saturation values both for the half-wave breakdown discharge
be considered, because excessive temperature will damage the mode and for the full-wave breakdown discharge mode. For
treatment targets. It is difficult to measure the temperature of the half-wave breakdown discharge mode, the temperature
the plasma jet directly. For the electrode arrangement in this reaches stable state at operation time of 600 s, and the
paper, the discharge occurs between the two electrodes, and maximum temperature is 37 °C; for the full-wave breakdown
the generated heat is diffused through the outer metal ground discharge mode, the temperature reaches stable state at
electrode into the air, so the gas temperature of plasma and operation time of 400 s, and the maximum temperature is
processing temperature can be estimated by the measuring 41 °C. The low operation temperature of the device facilitates
the temperature of the metal ground electrode. Fig. 5 shows its application for treating the heat sensitive substrates.
the variations of ground electrode temperature with the In summary, with the increase of the applied voltage, two
operation time of the plasma both for half-wave and full-wave discharge modes are observed. Stronger plasma with higher
breakdown discharge modes, and the operation conditions discharge power, higher active species density and longer
of Fig. 5 corresponds to those in Fig. 2, respectively. jet length can be obtained in full-wave breakdown discharge
The temperature is sampled using the infrared temperature mode at higher applied voltage, while plasma with moderate
XU et al.: TWO-MODE PORTABLE ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE AIR PLASMA JET DEVICE
Fig. 5. Variation of the temperature of ground electrode with the operation
time.
discharge power, moderate species density and shorter jet
length can be obtained in the half-wave breakdown discharge
mode at lower applied voltage. The reported two modes offer
good options for intense or moderate atmospheric pressure
economic air plasma jet sources, which have great potential
for biomedical applications. For example, the air jet operated
in half-wave breakdown discharge mode can be used for the
coagulation of small wounds, inactivation of bacteria that
is easy to be killed, treatment of living tissues for longer
time without heat damage etc. While the air jet operated
in full-wave breakdown discharge mode can be used for
coagulation of relatively big wounds, inactivation of bacteria
that is difficult to be killed, rapid processing with high intensity
etc.
IV. T REATMENT E FFECTS OF THE D EVICE
In order to verify the performance of the device for bio-
medical applications, and the using of it for blood coagulation
and sterilization are investigated. For the blood coagulation
experiments, four groups (A, B, C and D) of blood samples
each with a volume of 2 mL are prepared and used. The
blood samples are drawn from a healthy donor and placed
immediately in disposable plastic medical cups with a capacity
of 15 mL each, and the coagulating process is observed and
recorded with a digital camera. The processing procedures for
the four groups of samples are: the sample in group A are
exposed to ambient air to coagulate on its own for various
times without plasma treatment; for the samples in group B,
the high-frequency ac power supply is turned OFF and the dc
air pump is turned ON, in this case, the blood are only exposed
to the action of the air flow without discharge; the samples
in groups C and D are treated by device in the half-wave
and full-wave breakdown discharge modes for various times,
respectively. For the treatment of samples in groups B, C, and
D, the pen electrode is fixed vertically above the samples, and
distance between the sample surface and the out surface of the
ground electrode is set to be 6 mm. The photographs of the
four group samples are shown in Fig. 6. It can be seen from
Fig. 6(a) and (b) that no obvious coagulation happens within
2 min, suggesting that the air flow has no effect on coagulation.
As shown in Fig. 6(c) and (d), the same blood treated with
the air jet for 30 s exhibits an immediate clot layer formation
951
Fig. 6. Photographs of the four groups of samples. (a) Control group A
without plasma treatment. (b) Group B acted by air flow only. (c) Group C
treated in the half-wave breakdown discharge mode. (d) Group D treated in
the full-wave breakdown discharge mode.
Fig. 7. Variation of the viable counting of the biofilms with treatment times.
on the surface for both the two modes discharge. Previous
study [18] indicated that the direct contact nonthermal plasma
treatment increased the concentration of calcium ions, which
was beneficial for the blood coagulation. Direct conversion of
fibrinogen into fibrin was also reported as one mechanism of
blood coagulation by nonthermal plasma treatment [37]. In this
paper, the coagulation process treated in full-wave breakdown
discharge mode is faster than that in the half-wave breakdown
discharge mode.
C. albicans of viability is used to investigate the sterilization
performance of the device. 72-h old biofilms are prepared
and exposed to air plasma jet for various time intervals, and
the number of surviving cells is analyzed by colony-forming
units (CFU) counting and dead fluorescent staining. For the
treatment, the air jet in the full-wave breakdown discharge
mode is used, and the distance between the sample surface
and the out surface of the ground electrode is set to be 6 mm
during the treatments. Fig. 7 shows the variations of the viable
counting of the biofilms with treatment times, and Fig. 8 shows
the dead fluorescent staining of C. albicans biofilm exposed
to plasma for various times. It can be seen in Fig. 7 that C.
albicans presents a significant drop of viability after 20–55 s
952
Fig. 8. Dead fluorescent staining of C. albicans biofilm exposed to plasma
for times of (a) 0, (b) 10, and (c) 40 s. The black cells indicate alive bacteria
with intact membranes. The red cells indicate dead bacteria with damaged
membranes.
of treatment and no bacteria survived when treated for 60 s.
The results in Fig. 8 show that the number of dead cell
fluorescent staining after for 10- and 40-s plasma treatment,
and C. albicans biofilm is more sensitive to a 40-s plasma
exposure than 10 s, as expected from the CFU reduction factor.
V. C ONCLUSION
A portable and low-cost atmospheric pressure plasma jet
device has been developed for biomedical applications. The
device can generate plasma jet in air, and it is made by low-
cost accessories total costing only U.S. $63. The operation
in two different discharge modes of half-wave and full-wave
breakdown can be controlled by changing the applied voltage.
Stronger plasma with higher discharge power, higher active
species intensity, and longer jet length can be obtained in
full-wave breakdown discharge mode at higher applied volt-
age, while plasma with moderate discharge power, moderate
species density, and shorter jet length can be obtained in the
half-wave breakdown discharge mode at lower applied voltage.
The length of the plasma jet is optimized through studying on
the influences of distance between two electrodes, gas flow
rates and hole diameters, and the maximum length of the
plasma jet is 12 mm and is obtained at the distance between
two electrodes of 5 mm, the gas flow rate of 5 slm and the
hole diameter of 0.8 mm. The developed device is tested for
biomedical application, and the results of effective sterilization
of C. albicans and blood coagulation are obtained. This paper
confirms the possibility of developing an atmospheric pressure
air plasma jet system as a cheap and portable device for
biomedical applications, and also offers good options for
intense or moderate atmospheric pressure economic air plasma
jet sources.
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Nan Xu was born in Jiangsu, China, in 1993.
She received the B.S. degree in electrical engineer-
ing from Yancheng Teachers University, Yancheng,
China, in 2016. She is currently pursuing the
M.S. degree with Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing,
China.
Her current research interests include discharge
characteristics of atmospheric pressure plasma jet
and its applications.
953
Xinglei Cui was born in 1983. He received the
B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from the Department
of Electrical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Tech-
nology, Harbin, China, in 2008, 2010, and 2015,
respectively.
He is a currently an Associate Professor with Nan-
jing Tech University, Nanjing, China. His current
research interests include atmospheric pressure gas
discharge and its applications in medical applications
and material processing.
Zhi Fang (M’10–SM’15) was born in Heilongjiang,
China. He received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees
in electrical engineering from Xi’an Jiaotong Uni-
versity, Xi’an, China, in 1999, 2002 and 2005,
respectively.
He was a Visiting Scholar with the A J Drexel
Plasma Institute, Drexel University, Philadelphia,
PA, USA, from 2011 to 2012. He is currently a Pro-
fessor with Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, China.
His current research interests include atmospheric
pressure gas discharge plasmas, high-voltage insula-
tion, and the applications of atmospheric pressure plasma for materials surface
processing.
Dr. Fang is a member of the Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Society
of the IEEE and the Chinese Society of Electrical Engineering.
Yaowei Shi was born in Jiangsu, China, in 1993.
He received the B.S. degree in electrical engineer-
ing from Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, China,
in 2016, where he is currently pursuing the M.S.
degree.
His current research interests include the discharge
characteristics of atmospheric pressure plasma jet
and its applications.
Ruoyu Zhou was born in Jiangsu, China, in 1994.
He received the B.S. degree in electrical engineer-
ing from Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, China,
in 2016, where he is currently pursuing the M.S.
degree.
His current research interests include the discharge
characteristics of atmospheric pressure plasma jet
and its applications.