Removal of model proteins by means of low-pressure inductively coupled plasma discharge

Surgical instruments are intended to come into direct contact with the patients' tissues and thus interact with their first immune defence system. Therefore they have to be cleaned, sterilized and decontaminated, in order to prevent any kind of infections and inflammations or to exclude the possibility of transmission of diseases. From this perspective, the removal of protein residues from their surfaces constitutes new challenges, since certain proteins exhibit high resistance to commonly used sterilization and decontamination techniques and hence are difficult to remove without inducing major damages to the object treated. Therefore new approaches must be developed for that purpose and the application of non-equilibrium plasma discharges represents an interesting option. The possibility to effectively remove model proteins ( bovine serum albumin, lysozyme and ubiquitin) from surfaces of different materials ( Si wafer, glass, polystyrene and gold) by means of inductively coupled plasma discharges sustained in different argon containing mixtures is demonstrated and discussed in this paper.