A recent study suggests that plasma could be a promising breakthrough in the fight against the spread of COVID-19. It has revealed that plasma jets may kill the novel coronavirus on surfaces such as metal, leather, and plastic in as a little as 30 seconds.
Plasma is one of those four basic states of matter and can be created by heating a stable gas or subjecting it to a strong electromagnetic field.
The study is published in the journal Physics of Fluids. The study, which was conducted in June, has [proved that strains of the novel coronavirus on surfaces like metal, leather, and plastic were killed in as little as 30 seconds of treatment with argon-fed, cold atmospheric plasma.
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In one of the studies, the researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the US used an atmospheric pressure plasma jet that they built with a 3D printer to spray surfaces that were treated with SARS-CoV-2 cultures.
The surfaces included plastic, metal, cardboard, and basketball, football, and baseball leather. All coronavirus were killed using the Plasma Spray Fed By Argon.
The results showed the plasma spray fed by argon killed all the coronavirus on the six surfaces in less than three minutes, and most of the virus was destroyed after 30 seconds. In addition, a testing showed the virus was destroyed in similar times on cotton from face masks.
According to the study author Richard E. Wirz, the findings show great potential for the use of plasma in halting the virus’s transmission cycle.
On the study and its findings, Wirz said that this is only the beginning and they are quite confident and have high expectations for plasma in future work. He also added that this study will have answers for the scientific community about plasma.
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Cold Atmospheric Plasma Has Also Proven Effective In Cancer Treatments
A new technology of cold atmospheric plasma is an ionised, near-room-temperature gas that has proven effective in cancer treatments, wound healing, dentistry, and other medical applications.
A similar coronavirus test was conducted by the researchers, with helium-fed plasma, but the helium was not effective, even with treatments up to five minutes.
According to them, this was due to lower rates of reactive oxygen and reactive nitrogen when using helium-fed gas, compared to argon.
A compact device is being build up that could be used widely to treat surfaces for the coronavirus with plasma, said researchers. It is a safer, healthier option than chemicals or other treatments, they said.
