Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Jet Deposition of Patterned Polymer Films for Cell Culture Applications

Abstract

A miniature nonthermal atmospheric plasma jet was used to deposit patterns of plasma polymers on standard Pyrex Petri dishes from an argon/acetylene gas mixture. The injection of the C 2 H 2 monomer through the powered capillary electrode ending in the nozzle section allowed a stable operation of the plasma jet and the successful deposition of plasma-polymer tracks ≈500 μm wide. The line-averaged gas temperature was measured from the OH molecular band emission originating from the entrainment of air into the plasma jet. The gas temperature decreased monotonically from ≈440 K at the nozzle exit to ≈385 K at 5 mm downstream. The emission profiles of the C 2 (516 nm) band showed a peak ≈0.5 mm downstream the nozzle exit. The maximum emission for the CH band (431 nm) was obtained at the torch exit. An ATR-FTIR spectroscopy analysis of the deposited plasma-polymer films revealed the presence of C-H, O-H, and C = O functional groups. Mammalian cells grown on the argon/acetylene plasma-treated dishes showed migration and greater density compared to the control and dishes treated with an argon plasma jet. This preliminary study opens the door to the localized enhancement of cell coverage on various substrates (shape and material).Index Terms-Atmospheric pressure glow discharge (APGD) jet, cell growth and proliferation, plasma polymer, plasma spectroscopy.

Low-current discharge plasma jets in a gas flow. Application of plasma jets

“…One of the application fields of nonsteady-state plasma jets is surface modification [10][11][12][13][14][15][71][72][73][74][75] of, in particular, low-melting dielectrics [10,[12][13][14][15]74]. The flux of chemically active species for surface treatment is generally formed in a coaxial plasmatron which can be operated both in glow discharge and corona discharge modes [12,14,72,74,75].…”

“…The flux of chemically active species for surface treatment is generally formed in a coaxial plasmatron which can be operated both in glow discharge and corona discharge modes [12,14,72,74,75]. Dudek et al [72] described a system formally resembling that in Fig.…”

“…The use of discharges in systems for sustaining the combustion and conversion (reforming) of hydrocarbons is an illustrative example [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] of it. Of substantial interest is the possibility to use low-temperature plasma jets for modifying surfaces (particularly, surfaces of low-melting dielectrics) [10][11][12][13][14][15]. Finally, an important field of application is medicine and biology: disinfection, sterilization [16,17], wound healing [18][19][20][21][22], selective action on cells [18,19,23,24], etc.…”

Point-to-Point Corona Discharge in Admixtures of Argon, Oxygen, and Acetylene

“…On the contrary, practical applications of APWIP commonly known as cold plasma in the literature are increasing rapidly for a wide variety of feed gas streams. For example, acetylene is used as a precursor molecule to achieve plasma-polymerized deposition [12]- [15] and oxygen is used to increase the surface free energy [16], [17]. The dielectric barrier discharge is often used for these various applications to avoid spark breakdown.…”

Low-Current Plasmatron as a Source of Nitrogen Oxide Molecules

“…Currently, the atmospheric-pressure discharges in a gas flow are of growing interest because of the prospects for a variety of applications, such as surface modification of the dielectric materials with a purpose to enhance the adhesion strength [20]- [22], decontamination and sterilization [23], [24], etching and deposition [25], [26], medical treatment [2], [4], [27]- [32], and plasma catalytic conversion in air-hydrocarbon mixtures [33]- [38].…”