The effect of pulsed electric fields on biological cells: experiments and applications

Purification of Drinking Water by Application of High Voltage Electric Pulses Generated from Boost Converter and Voltage Multipliers

“…To avoid electrolysis of the electrodes in the treatment chamber PEF is used instead of continuous electric field [3,4]. For the purification of water duration of the pulses in the pulsed electric field can be ranged from few tens of nanoseconds to few tens of microseconds [5], with a voltage level up to 50kV/cm to cause irreversible permeabilisation of the cell membrane.…”

Demonstration of a Novel Pulsed Electric Field Technique Generating Neither Conduction Currents Nor Joule Effects

“…Once this reaches a threshold of approximately 1 V, the outer membrane permeability increases and cell death may result, by a phenomenon termed irreversible electroporation. More recent studies predicted and demonstrated experimentally that sterilisation of bacteria such as Escherichia coli can also be achieved using very intense transient electric fields (of the order of 100 kV/cm and higher) with a pulse duration of the order of the charging time of intracellular structures of the microorganism (i.e., tens of ns) [5,6]. It is however well beyond the aims of this paper to comment on the complex processes involved in such phenomena.…”

“…It is obvious that to avoid an electrical breakdown in water, the applied electric field pulse has to be fast. However, according to [5] the shorter the pulse duration τ, the more intense is the electric field required for lysing i.e., E~τ -1/3 . Further following [5] in the case of invasive PEF and for an arbitrary pulse, the electrical energy density required is .…”

“…However, according to [5] the shorter the pulse duration τ, the more intense is the electric field required for lysing i.e., E~τ -1/3 . Further following [5] in the case of invasive PEF and for an arbitrary pulse, the electrical energy density required is . This is not the case for non-invasive PEF, where the energy density dissipated during processing is not a function of the pulse duration.…”

The current-voltage relation for electropores with conductivity gradients

“…In this case, electroporation can be harnessed to develop biofouling control, debacterialization, and novel cancer treatment techniques. [4][5][6][7] In addition to technological developments, research in the past two decades has also made significant progress in model understanding of the complex processes involved in electroporation. The in-depth insight and prediction capability provided is critical for the improvement and optimization of this technique.…”