Fundamentals of plasma disinfection for the inactivation of viruses in aerosol particles: Influence of liquid films

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Cold atmospheric plasmas such as Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) plasmas are used to inactivate microorganisms and to eliminate toxic or undesirable pollutants in air or exhaust streams and are even employed to selectively target the destruction of cancer cells. The Covid-19 pandemic raised the demand for inactivation of viruses in aerosol particles. One idea is to filter the particles and then use cold plasma to eliminate the viruses. The other approach is to inactivate the viruses directly in the aerosol state. However, in the case of liquid aerosol particles, the viruses are surrounded by moisture layers and the interaction between the plasma species and the liquid layer is still poorly understood.Atomistic simulations can provide fundamental insights into plasma disinfection processes that are difficult to access, especially in the aerosol state, through experiments. In this project, molecular dynamics simulations will be performed to investigate the interaction mechanisms of reactive plasma species with liquid films surrounding viruses. The plasma membrane of the virus will be modeled as a lipid bilayer. The concentration of the active species at the plasma source and their decay over time will be directly determined from experiments using UV-vis spectroscopy of the DBD plasma and a radical sensitive tracer reaction.