Sterilization mechanism of helium/helium–oxygen atmospheric-pressure pulsed dielectric barrier discharge on membrane surface

Pulsed dielectric barrier discharge (PDBD) exhibits several applications in different fields; however, the interaction of its components with substances remains a key issue. In this study, we employed experimental and numerical modeling to investigate the interactions between different PDBD components and substances in pure helium and a helium–oxygen mixture. A membrane comprising a Staphylococcus aureus strain was utilized as the treatment object to demonstrate the trace actions of the evolutions and distributions of certain components on the surface of the substance. The results revealed that the shapes and sizes of the discharging area and inhibition zone differed between groups. Under a pure helium condition, a discharge layer existed along the membrane surface, lying beside the main discharging channel within the electrode area. Further, an annulus inhibition zone was formed at the outer edge of the electrode in the pure helium group at 30 s and 1 min, and this zone extended to a solid circle at 2 min with a radius that was ~50% larger than that of the electrode radius. Nevertheless, the discharging channel and inhibition zone in the helium–oxygen mixture were constrained inside the electrode area without forming any annulus. A 2D symmetrical model was developed with COMSOL to simulate the spatiotemporal distributions of different particles over the membrane surface, and the result demonstrated that the main components, which formed the annulus inhibition zone under the pure helium condition, contributed to the high concentration of the He⁺ annulus that was formed at the outer edge of the electrode. Moreover, O⁺ and O₂⁺ were the main components that killed the bacteria under the helium–oxygen mixture conditions. These results reveal that the homogenization treatment on a material surface via PDBD is closely related to the treatment time and working gas.