Biological and Environmental Applications of Gas Discharge Plasmas

The emerging field of biological and environmental applications of plasma represents an inter/multidisciplinary effort among microbiologists, biologists, physicists, engineers and more recently, physicians. Environmental, health, and safety problems become more crucial in our present period of exponential demographic growth. Although there is an increase in awareness for clean technologies, the quantities of biological and chemical waste requiring treatment are markedly increasing. There is also a real need to solve medical problems, such as biofilm-mediated nosocomial infections, that seem to be difficult to solve by using traditional technologies. There are also problems related to water contamination that require urgent responses. In this context, plasma technologies offer a potentially good solution to many of these problems. This book includes seven chapters on environmental, biological, and health-related applications and also descriptions about methodologies used to study the interaction between plasma and its target. Chapters written by leading experts in their fields discuss medical applications such as cauterisation, biofilm inactivation, blood coagulation, treatment of corneal infections, cancers, dental diseases, and leishmaniasis, just to mention a few. Environmental topics such as water treatment and purification, removal of gaseous chemical pollutants, treatment of industrial waste, and purification of spent solvents are also thoroughly discussed together with some novel applications such as the treatment of seeds and wood for decontamination and further storage. This book gives an overview of some of the most exciting present and future applications of gas discharge plasmas.