An emerging field of plasma medicine is discussed, where non-equilibrium plasmas are shown to be able to initiate, promote, control, and catalyze various complex behaviors and responses in biological systems. More importantly, it will be shown that plasma can be tuned to achieve the desired medical effect, especially in medical sterilization and treatment of different kind of skin diseases. Wound healing and tissue regeneration can be achieved following various types of plasma treatment in a multitude of wound pathologies. Non-equilibrium plasmas will be shown to be non-destructive to tissue, safe, and effective in inactivation of various parasites and foreign organisms.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ppap.200700154

Applied Plasma Medicine

Remarkable hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) or superior oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalyst has been applied in water splitting, however, utilizing a bifunctional catalyst for simultaneously generating H2 and O2 is still a challenging issue, which is crucial for improving the overall efficiency of water electrolysis Herein, inspired by the superiority of carbon conductivity, the propitious H atom binding energy of metallic cobalt, and better OER activity of cobalt oxide, we synthesized cobalt–cobalt oxide/N-doped carbon hybrids (CoOx@CN) composed of Co0, CoO, Co3O4 applied to HER and OER by simple one-pot thermal treatment method CoOx@CN exhibited a small onset potential of 85 mV, low charge-transfer resistance (41 Ω), and considerable stability for HER Electrocatalytic experiments further indicated the better performance of CoOx@CN for HER can be attributed to the high conductivity of carbon, the synergistic effect of metallic cobalt and cobalt oxide, the stability of carbon-encapsulated Co nano

In situ cobalt-cobalt oxide/N-doped carbon hybrids as superior bifunctional electrocatalysts for hydrogen and oxygen evolution.

This introductory review on plasma health care is intended to provide the interested reader with a summary of the current status of this emerging field, its scope, and its broad interdisciplinary approach, ranging from plasma physics, chemistry and technology, to microbiology, biochemistry, biophysics, medicine and hygiene. Apart from the basic plasma processes and the restrictions and requirements set by international health standards, the review focuses on plasma interaction with prokaryotic cells (bacteria), eukaryotic cells (mammalian cells), cell membranes, DNA etc. In so doing, some of the unfamiliar terminology—an unavoidable by-product of interdisciplinary research—is covered and explained. Plasma health care may provide a fast and efficient new path for effective hospital (and other public buildings) hygiene— helping to prevent and contain diseases that are continuously gaining ground as resistance of pathogens to antibiotics grows. The delivery of medically active 'substances' at the molecular or ionic level is another exciting topic of research through effects on cell walls (permeabilization), cell excitation (paracrine action) and the introduction of reactive species into cell cytoplasm. Electric fields, charging of surfaces, current flows etc can also affect tissue in a controlled way. The field is young and hopes are high. It is fitting to cover the beginnings in New Journal of Physics, since it is the physics (and non- equilibrium chemistry) of room temperature atmospheric pressure plasmas that have made this development of plasma health care possible.

/pdf/plasma-medicine-an-introductory-review-16ncxlrbef.pdf

Plasma medicine: an introductory review

Hydrogen fuel is considered as the cleanest renewable resource and the primary alternative to fossil fuels for future energy supply. Sustainable hydrogen generation is the major prerequisite to realize future hydrogen economy. The electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), as the vital step of water electrolysis to H2 production, has been the subject of extensive study over the past decades. In this comprehensive review, we first summarize the fundamentals of HER and review the recent state-of-the-art advances in the low-cost and high-performance catalysts based on noble and non-noble metals, as well as metal-free HER electrocatalysts. We systemically discuss the insights into the relationship among the catalytic activity, morphology, structure, composition, and synthetic method. Strategies for developing an effective catalyst, including increasing the intrinsic activity of active sites and/or increasing the number of active sites, are summarized and highlighted. Finally, the challenges, perspectives, and research directions of HER electrocatalysis are featured.

Recent Advances in Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution Using Nanoparticles.

Premises of creation of Internet portal designed to provide access to participants of educational and scientific process for the joint creation, consolidation, concentration and rapid spreading of educational and scientific information resources in its own depository are considered. CMS-based portal content management systems’ potentiality is investigated. Architecture for Internet portal of MES of Ukraine’s information resources is offered.

Створення порталу інформаційно-довідкових ресурсів міністерства освіти і науки україни

Nanofluids—a simple product of the emerging world of nanotechnology—are suspensions of nanoparticles (nominally 1–100 nm in size) in conventional base fluids such as water, oils, or glycols. Nanofluids have seen enormous growth in popularity since they were proposed by Choi in 1995. In the year 2011 alone, there were nearly 700 research articles where the term nanofluid was used in the title, showing rapid growth from 2006 (175) and 2001 (10). The first decade of nanofluid research was primarily focused on measuring and modeling fundamental thermophysical properties of nanofluids (thermal conductivity, density, viscosity, heat transfer coefficient). Recent research, however, explores the performance of nanofluids in a wide variety of other applications. Analyzing the available body of research to date, this article presents recent trends and future possibilities for nanofluids research and suggests which applications will see the most significant improvement from employing nanofluids.

Small particles, big impacts: A review of the diverse applications of nanofluids

High temperature and long-term stability of carbon nanotube nanofluids for direct absorption solar thermal collectors

The atmospheric pressure glow discharge torch (APGD-t) is a miniature pulsed RF (13.56 MHz) plasma source specifically designed to efficiently produce and transport reactive species to and interact with biological samples. When applied to adherent cell cultures, the APGD-t is capable of inducing temporary cell permeabilization. In this work, we evaluate the maximum radius of macromolecules able to enter into HeLa cells following a plasma treatment using a size exclusion approach with dextran molecules. We observe that this maximum radius is below 6.5 nm. We also show that no degradation occurs when a plasmid DNA suspended in culture media is plasma-treated at the operating conditions leading to cell permeabilization. The plasma-assisted DNA transfection of the HeLa cells with the hrGFP-II-1 plasmid using the APGD-t is demonstrated. Local transfection efficiencies obtained are as high as 35%.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1367-2630/11/11/115021/pdf

Cell permeabilization using a non-thermal plasma

The design of a miniature low-power atmospheric pressure glow discharge torch (APGD-t) and the results of its preliminary electrical and spectroscopic characterization are presented. A capacitively-coupled pulsed RF (13.56 MHz) helium plasma jet is formed in a converging confinement tube and O2 is injected downstream in the plasma afterglow region through a capillary electrode. With 1 SLM He, the APGD-t produced a non-thermal plasma jet of 500 µm-diameter and ≈2.5 mm-long at power levels ranging from 1 to 5 W. At ≈1 W, the gas temperature and He excitation temperature near the nozzle exit were ≈50°C and slightly below 2000 K, respectively. The breakdown voltage in 1 SLM He is approximately 220 Vpk−to−0. Careful electric probe measurements and circuit analysis revealed the strong effect of the voltage probe on the total load impedance. The injection of 10 SCCM O2 through the capillary electrode led to the transport of atomic O further downstream in the plasma jet and to a slight increase of the He excitation temperature without significant effects on the electrical properties and jet length. Alternatively, the addition of an equivalent amount of O2 (1 v/v%) to the plasma-forming gas affected the electrical properties slightly, but led to a drastic contraction of the plasma jet. The atomic oxygen production and transport conditions provided by the APGD-t are promising for precise bio-applications such as the treatment of skin tissues and cells.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0963-0252/14/3/008/pdf

Design and preliminary characterization of a miniature pulsed RF APGD torch with downstream injection of the source of reactive species

A miniature atmospheric pressure glow discharge plasma torch was used to detach cells from a polystyrene Petri dish. The detached cells were successfully transplanted to a second dish and a proliferation assay showed the transplanted cells continued to grow. Propidium iodide diffused into the cells, suggesting that the cell membrane had been permeabilized, yet the cells remained viable 24 h after treatment. In separate experiments, hydrophobic, bacteriological grade polystyrene Petri dishes were functionalized. The plasma treatment reduced the contact angle from 93° to 35°, and promoted cell adhesion. Two different torch nozzles, 500 µm and 150 µm in internal diameter, were used in the surface functionalization experiments. The width of the tracks functionalized by the torch, as visualized by cell adhesion, was approximately twice the inside diameter of the nozzle. These results indicate that the miniature plasma torch could be used in biological micropatterning, as it does not use chemicals like the present photolithographic techniques. Due to its small size and manouvrability, the torch also has the ability to pattern complex 3D surfaces.

Sylvain Coulombe

Papers

Small particles, big impacts: A review of the diverse applications of nanofluids

High temperature and long-term stability of carbon nanotube nanofluids for direct absorption solar thermal collectors

Cell permeabilization using a non-thermal plasma

Design and preliminary characterization of a miniature pulsed RF APGD torch with downstream injection of the source of reactive species

Cell treatment and surface functionalization using a miniature atmospheric pressure glow discharge plasma torch