Abstract
Medical equipments are generally sterilized by high pressure steam and ethylene oxide gas methods which allow a large amount of instruments in a vessel to be sterilized at once. However, high pressure steam needs more than 121°C and 2 atm, and the ethylene oxide gas is a toxic substance and takes about one week for aeration. Therefore, development of new sterilization method with safety, low-temperature・ and lower cost is expected. Plasma sterilization devices are considered to be possible to operate with low-temperature, shorter time, low-cost and safety. In this study, plasma sterilization methods in air at atmospheric pressure have been developed. In the case of air, the spores of Geobacillus stearot加rmophilus were sterilized with 5 log scale reduction in 10 min, and it was clarified that the important sterilization factor is NO2 using a NO2 mixed argon gas.
