Synergistic antibacterial effects of treatments with low temperature plasma jet and pulsed electric fields
Abstract
Inactivation of Staphylococcus aureus by a non-thermal argon operated plasma jet and by microsecond pulsed electric fields (PEF) was investigated. The different methods were either applied by themselves or in combination with each other. Treatments with plasma alone or pulsed electric fields alone were found to result in significant but not complete inactivation. A 2-log reduction was observed for the longest plasma exposure time of 3 min or for the application of 300 consecutive electric field pulses with 100-μs duration and 15-kV/cm amplitude. For the combined treatment with non-thermal plasma and pulsed electric fields, significant synergistic antibacterial effects were observed when samples were treated with plasma first. However, only an additive or at most a slight synergistic effect was observed when samples were first treated with pulsed electric fields instead. The acidification of the bacteria suspension after plasma treatment is likely responsible for the support of subsequent reaction mechanisms that are induced by exposures to pulsed electric fields and is hence the reason for the observed synergy.
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CP generates reactive oxygen/nitrogen species (ROS/RNS) that inactivate microbes by oxidizing lipid membranes, inducing DNA strand breaks, and denaturing functional proteins.
“These highly reactive transient species mediate diverse chemical interactions, notably in microbial inactivation where they selectively target bacterial cellular components: oxidizing lipid membranes via peroxidation, inducing DNA strand breaks through radical attack, and denaturing functional proteins by amino acid modification.”
From Effect of Atmospheric Cold Plasma Treatment on the Microorganism Growth, Diversity, and Quality of Coconut Water During Refrigerator Storage (2025) · cites this paper as [6]
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Reactivity of HO2/O− 2 radicals in aqueous solution
Bielski, B. H. J., Cabelli, D. E., Arudi, R. L., & Ross, A. B. (1985) · Journal of Physical and Chemical Reference Data · doi:10.1063/1.555739 · Cited by 2,169 · see citing works
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Zeng, L., Gu, W., Wang, Y., Deng, W., Wang, J., & Zhang, L. (2025) · Foods · doi:10.3390/foods14152709 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
- Authors
- Zhang, Q., Zhuang, J., von Woedtke, T., Kolb, J. F., Zhang, J., Fang, J., & Weltmann, K.-D.
- Affiliations
- Peking University (CN)
- Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology (DE)
- Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology (INP Greifswald) 2 , Greifswald 17489, Germany
- Venue
- Applied Physics Letters
- Publisher
- AIP Publishing
- Published
- 2014-09-08
- Volume
- 105
- Issue
- 10
- ISSN
- 0003-6951 (ISSN-L)
- 1077-3118
- OpenAlex
- W2032472576
- Cited by
- 73
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 4
- FWCI
- 6.52
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Applied Physics Letters (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Plasma Applications and Diagnostics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Biotechnology › Microbial Inactivation Methods
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Control and Systems Engineering › Pulsed Power Technology Applications
- Keywords
- non-thermal plasma, argon plasma jet, pulsed electric field, Staphylococcus aureus, bacterial inactivation, synergistic antibacterial activity, combination therapy, food safety
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