Plasma-catalysed Sterilization of Packaged Consumer Goods

我们开发了一种新型的平面介质阻挡等离子体源，具有多种应用，其中之一是等离子体消毒系统，能够直接在密封塑料袋内产生臭氧。该技术可用于在不打开包装内容物的情况下通过在袋与等离子体源接触时在袋内引发等离子体放电来对包装内容物进行灭菌。袋子未损坏，内容物上没有明显的热负荷。通过从密封容器内的空气中产生臭氧来实现消毒。臭氧是一种有效的消毒剂，可以杀死接触的细菌和病毒。它的半衰期也很短：在消费者打开包装之前，臭氧就已经在密封的包装内消散。包装外不会产生臭氧，而且等离子体系统具有内在的电气安全性，即使在潮湿的条件下也是如此。该技术的应用范围很广：食品、医疗用品（敷料、纱布、长袍、口罩等）等气密包装商品。由于该技术不需要对包装进行任何修改，因此可以在生产点进行处理，也可以追溯处理，并且可以应用于现有的产品范围。尽管臭氧在工业上用于某些应用（特别是水的消毒），但过去由于在生产环境中储存和部署臭氧的实际困难，利用这种最强大的杀菌剂的能力受到阻碍。我们的技术仅在需要的地方产生臭氧：直接在密封包装内;因此，远程生产不会对环境造成臭氧危害，也不需要在现场储存有毒消毒剂用于灭菌程序，因为臭氧在所有情况下都足够。该平台技术还有许多其他应用：我们的臭氧设备可以作为生物医学实验室设备甚至家用电器的活性表面组件内置-任何需要局部灭菌的地方。

We have developed a novel planar dielectric barrier plasma source with multiple applications, one of which is a plasma sterilizing system, capable of producing ozone directly inside sealed plastic bags. The technology can be used to sterilize packaged contents without opening them by causing a plasma discharge to be initiated inside the bag when in contact with the plasma source. The bag is undamaged, and there is no significant thermal load on the contents. Sterilization is effected by the production of ozone from the air inside the sealed container. Ozone is an effective sterilizer, killing bacteria and viruses on contact. It also has a short half-life: the ozone will have dissipated inside the sealed package before the consumer opens it. There is no ozone production outside the packaging, and the plasma system is inherently electrically safe, even in wet conditions. The applications of this technology are diverse: air-tight packaged goods such as foodstuffs, medical supplies (dressings, gauze, gowns, masks etc.) could be processed at the production point, and also retrospectively, since the technology does not require any packaging modification, and can be applied to existing product ranges. Although ozone is used industrially in some applications (particularly the sterilization of water), the ability to harness this most powerful of germicides has been hampered in the past by practical difficulties in the storage and deployment of ozone in a production setting. Our technique generates ozone only where it is needed: directly inside sealed packages; thus there is no ambient ozone hazard from remote production, neither is there any need to store toxic disinfectants on site for use in sterilization procedures, since the ozone will suffice in all contexts. This platform technology has many other applications: our ozone device can be built-in as an active surface component of biomedical laboratory equipment and even domestic appliances - anywhere that requires localised sterilization.