I am working on a science project for my science class in highschool. I have seen several articles on a 'plasma pencil' being used as a tool to kill bacteria. I saw this schematic for a cold plasma circuit http://jnaudin.free.fr/html/s_gdp1.htm. I was wondering how i could alter this so i could make the cold plasma come in contact with a petri dishes to see if it can kill different types of bacteria. Could i strip the insulated wire where the cold plasma is being made?

Thanks-
Grant

 

It seems that what kills the bacteria is the ionized gas mixture of the plasma pencil, so maybe it won't work without the gases.

It does generate ozone though, would it be enough to kill bacteria? It's a very cool project.

 

After doing some quick research I have found several sources that say ozone can kill bacteria. Whether this is true or not though...does that schematic in the link I posted look like ozone is being produced?

 

Well every ionizer in free air produces ozone as far as I know, and in that page you linked there's a warning at the bottom for the ozone produced by the device, but I have no idea if it would serve your purposes.

 

I may be wrong, but I believe ozone is related to bleach, it is an oxidizer.

 

Hello,

Ozone is a very strong oxidizer:

Due to the strongly oxidizing properties of ozone, ozone is a primary irritant, affecting especially the eyes and respiratory systems and can be hazardous at even low concentrations


See this wiki page for more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone

Bertus

 

Every electric arc produces ozone to some degree. Also electrolytic dissociation of water produces ozone... both are used in semiconductor fabs in which I used to work before they shipped ours to china.

Robert

"maybe that helps maybe it don't"

 

Thanks for the help,
one more thing though...
Does the fact that their is insulation on the wire where the plasma is being made matter?