Decontamination of surfaces by low pressure plasma discharges

Non-equilibrium discharges in molecular gases and their mixtures have been extensively studied due to their applicability in different areas of surface treatment, cleaning and functionalization. In this paper, the feasibility of the use of low pressure discharges for sterilization and decontamination, i.e., a topic that has attracted great attention recently, is demonstrated and discussed using examples of bacterial spore sterilization and depyrogenation of bacterial endotoxins, as well as the elimination of protein films.