B0847 - Plasma Technologies for Energy, Environmental and Biomedical Applications T

Learning outcomes

This course aims to provide the basis for an understanding of the problems related to the ever increasing use of plasmas in the biomedical, energy and environmental fields, indicating the physical and engineering principles underlying the most important applications, already consolidated or under development.

Course contents

Applications in the biomedical, energy and environmental fields are characterized by the common need for innovative and advanced treatments that modify the properties of different materials (which might occur in liquid, solid or gaseous phase and can even be biological materials). Plasma, an ionized gas capable of conducting heat and electricity and consisting of electrons, ions, neutrals and radical species, has an extraordinary potential linked to its numerous active agents that give the technology the versatility required to adapt even to the most innovative and complex applications. Controlling plasma characteristics and optimizing them for specific applications requires physical and engineering skills combined with a strongly interdisciplinary problem-solving approach.

After an introduction aimed at providing students with some fundamental information on the nature of plasmas, the course will focus on its applications in three sectors: biomedical, energy and environmental. In particular, the following topics will be illustrated, starting from the most consolidated technologies and continuing with the most innovative ones:

Part 1

-Basic concepts related to particle interactions: energy states of atoms and molecules; ionization potential; Morse potential diagram

- Elementary processes in a plasma: ionization mechanisms; reaction processes involving positive or negative ions; excitation and dissociation processes of neutral particles; relaxation processes

- Plasma breakdown: simplified description for a DC plasma; extended description for a DC plasma and discharge regimes; Townsend breakdown: electron avalanche, ionization coefficients, reduced electric field at breakdown, electric field at breakdown, breakdown voltage, Paschen curves; phenomenological description of a DC glow discharge; spark breakdown: electron avalanche as a dipole, electric field distortion, Meek's criterion, the streamer concept and its propagation at the cathode or anode

- Main characteristic aspects of thermal and nonthermal plasma sources at low pressure and at atmospheric pressure; description of working principle of corona, resistive barrier and dielectric barrier discharges; plasma jet architecture

- Assisted plasma process design: ozone production by nonequilibrium plasmas; chemistry of plasmas in oxygen; chemistry of plasmas in air; control of ozone production process; technological aspects

Part 2

Ozone in liquid: chemistry recalls, ozone chemistry in water, ozone decay, Chick's Law, disinfection and decontamination of water, mass transfer, potabilization of river water

- Use of gaseous ozone for surface decontamination: exposure threshold values

-Plasma and liquids: plasma sources for liquid treatment, plasma interaction with liquids, induced chemistry in liquid, reactive oxygen and nitrogen species, chemical analysis of reactive species produced in liquid, plasma activated water, microbial inactivation

-Biomedical applications: applications in oncology, dermatology, DIN Standard SPEC91315 "General requirements for plasma sources in medicine), decontamination of aerosols and surfaces

Part 3

- Plasma processes for surface modification of materials: biomaterials, surface engineering, ion implantation, sputtering, etching, polymerization

- Magnetically confined thermonuclear fusion: nuclear fusion reactions, electrostatic and nuclear forces, thermonuclear reactions in a plasma, Lawson's criterion and its implications, triple product and amplification factor Q, magnetic confinement of a plasma, magnetic cage in a Tokamak, rough sizing of a Tokamak, the ITER project, the DTT reactor

 

Readings/Bibliography

• Copies of the material used during lectures
• A. Fridman, Plasma Chemistry, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK (2008)
• M. Laroussi, M.G. Kong, G. Morfill,W. Stolz, Plasma medicine, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK (2012)
• R. d'Agostino, P. Favia, C. Oehr, M. R. Wertheimer, Plasma Processes and Polymers, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey, USA (2005)
• V. I. Parvulescu, M. Magureanu, P. Lukes. Plasma Chemistry and Catalysis in Gases and Liquids, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey, USA (2012)
• Jeffrey P. Freidberg, Plasma Physics and Fusion Energy, Cambridge University Press

Teaching methods

Lectures with overhead projector and slides

Assessment methods

Oral test on the topics covered in class. The test consists of two phases.
Phase 1

2 tracks will be administered as a guide for the subsequent oral test. In this phase, it is required to report graphs, diagrams, formulas and concept maps that facilitate oral discussion, without the need to answer discursively. This stage of the test is also intended to allow for self-assessment by: if you do not have sufficient knowledge of one of the two questions, you will be allowed to withdraw independently, without entering the oral phase with teachers.

Phase 2

Oral with lecturers, in which the topics proposed in the previous phase and, more generally, any topic covered in all 3 parts of the course will be discussed

Teaching tools

Supporting documents made available on Virtuale

Office hours

See the website of Romolo Laurita

See the website of Matteo Gherardi