Varying RONS Species in DBD Helium Plasma for Therapeutic Optimization in Wound Healing

The plasma-water interaction is employed in many medical procedures, including wound sterilization and cell proliferation. Its uses in medicine stem from the therapeutic properties of the formation of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS). These species, which are produced when a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma jet comes in contact with the wound surface, are crucial in healing wounds. Our experiment used a DBD helium-plasma jet with a flow rate of 10SLPM to generate helium plasma-activated water (PAW) with varied exposure times (5-15 minutes), and therefore varied RONS concentrations. We performed absorption spectroscopy using a Shimadzu 1900i spectrophotometer on our PAW samples in order to determine its RONS concentration. After applying a baseline, an accurate analysis of radical contribution to plasma solutions could be achieved by comparing calibration curves of our PAW samples with varied concentration of RONS solutions, attempting to understand the pattern between these RONS concentrations and peak intensities in helium plasma-activated water. In this article, the experimental approaches, such as absorption spectroscopy and calibration curves, that we took to determine how varying exposure time contributes to RONS concentration in helium plasma, and the relevance of our research to the future of plasma medicine.