• Medical Lasers
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.74-79
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• 2019

Periorbital melasma is often refractory to treatment and highly associated with rebound hyperpigmentation or mottled hypopigmentation after laser treatment in Asian patients. In this report, we describe 2 patients with cluster-1 periorbital melasma and 1 patient with cluster-2 periorbital melasma who experienced remarkable clinical improvements after microwave-generated, atmospheric-pressure, non-thermal nitrogen plasma treatments. All patients exhibited limited clinical responses after combination treatments with topical bleaching agents, systemic oral tranexamic acid, and low-fluenced Q-switched neodymium (Nd):yttrium-aluminum-garnet (YAG) lasers. Low-energy nitrogen plasma treatment at 0.75 J elicited remarkable clinical improvement in the periorbital melasma lesions without post-laser therapy rebound hyperpigmentation and mottled hypopigmentation. We deemed that a single pass of nitrogen plasma treatment at 0.75 J induces mild microscopic thermal tissue coagulation and modification within the epidermis while preserving the integrity of the basement membrane in patients with periorbital melasma. Accordingly, nitrogen plasma-induced dermal tissue regeneration could play a role in the treatment of melasma lesions.

• Composites Research
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.1-7
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• 2010

To increase the adhesive strength of acrylonitrile butadiene rubber(NBR) and steel plate, the atmospheric pressure flame plasma(APFP) treatment device is applied. The effect of various conditions(processing velocity and distance) is experimentally investigated to ascertain the optimum conditions to yield the best adhesive properties. It is found that the optimum distance between burner port and steel plate is 40mm and the optimum processing velocity is 50m/min at given condition. When the surface is coated twice with the bonding agent, the adhesion strength of APFP treated steel plate is increased to about 20.5%. It suggests that the surface modification of steel by flame plasma treatment at atmospheric pressure is a proper and applicable method to improve the adhesion strength between steel and rubber.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.23 no.12
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• pp.184-190
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• 2009

Tri-acetyl-cellulose(TAC) film surface was modified by atmospheric-pressure plasma technique to obtain the hydrophilic functional groups and improve the contact angle. TAC film was modified with N2 plasma ionized in dielectric barrier discharge(DBD) reactor under atmospheric pressure. We measured the change of the contact angle and the surface energy with respect to the plasma treatment conditions such as plasma treatment power, discharge gap and Ｎ2 gas flow rate. As the plasma treatment speed of 100[mm/sec], the plasma treatment power of 1.5[kW], discharge gap 2[mm] and the $N_2$ gas flow rate 140[LPM], the best contact angle and the highest surface energy were obtained. The degree of hydrophilization depended strongly on the plasma-treating time and discharge power.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.58 no.12
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• pp.2474-2479
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• 2009

This paper presents an atmospheric microplasma-jet device for bio~medical application. The microplasma-jet device consists of four components; a thin Ni anode, porous alumina insulator, a stainless steel cathode and an aluminum case. The anode has 8 holes, and hole diameter and depth are $200 {\mu}m$ and $60 {\mu}m$, respectively. The discharge test was performed in atmospheric pressure using nitrogen gas and AC voltage at the optimum gas flow rate of 4 Vmin. The plasma-jet is ejected stably for the input voltage ranging from 5.5 to $9.5 kV_{p-p}$. The plasma becomes dense as the input voltage increases, which was verified by the hydrophilicity change of PMMA surface treated by the plasma. The temperature increasement of the aluminum film exposed to plasma-jet illustrates that the micro plasma-jet device is feasible for bio-medical application.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.60 no.3
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• pp.452-458
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• 2022

Three types of gas-liquid hybrid horizontal, vertical and needle-to-cylinder plasma reactors were fabricated. Through these reactors, a high-efficiency, eco-friendly cleaning concept that generates reactive active species generated in atmospheric plasma discharge and gas-liquid activation reaction of cleaning components through the potential difference within the electrode was presented. As a result of comparing the efficiency for cleaning performance, the needle-to-cylinder type reactor had the best characteristics. Through this study, it was confirmed that the gas-liquid hybrid atmospheric pressure plasma reactor has the potential to be applied to ultra-precision cleaning processes such as semiconductor processes.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.476-476
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• 2012

Although plasma is an efficient means of microbial sterilization, mechanism of plasma effect on microorganisms still needs to be clarified. In addition, a limited number of studies are available on eukaryotic microorganisms such as yeast and fungi in relation to plasma application. Thus, we investigated cellular and molecular aspects of plasma effects on a filamentous fungus, Neurospora crassa by making use of argon plasma jet at atmospheric pressure. The viability and cell morphology of N. crassa spores exposed to plasma were both significantly reduced depending on the exposure time when treated in water. The intracellular genomic DNA content was dramatically reduced in fungal tissues after a plasma treatment and the transcription factor tah-3 was found to be required for fungal tolerance to a harsh plasma environment.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.222-227
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• 2017

This study aimed to explore the potential for food-industry application of atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharge plasma (atmospheric pressure DBD plasma) as a non-thermal sterilization technology for microorganism. The effects of the key parameters such as power, oxygen ratio, exposure time and distance on Escherichia coli KCCM 21052 sterilization by the atmospheric pressure DBD plasma treatment were investigated. The experimental results revealed that increasing the power, exposure time or oxygen ratio and decreasing the exposure distance led to an improvement in the sterilization efficiency of E. coli. Furthermore, the atmospheric pressure DBD plasma (1.0 kW power, 1.0% (v/v) $O_2$, 5 min exposure time and 20 mm exposure distance) treatment was very effective for the sterilization of food-borne pathogenic bacteria. The sterilization rate of E. coli, Bacillus cereus KCCM 40935, Bacillus subtilis KCCM 12027, Bacillus thuringiensis KCCM 11429 and Bacillus atrophaeus KCCM 11314 were 72.3%, 74.6%, 88.5%, 84.7% and 91.3%, respectively.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.120-123
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• 2014

Thermal doping method using furnace is generally used for solar-cell wafer doping. It takes a lot of time and high cost and use toxic gas. Generally selective emitter doping using laser, but laser is very high equipment and induce the wafer's structure damage. In this study, we apply atmospheric pressure plasma for solar-cell wafer doping. We fabricated that the atmospheric pressure plasma jet injected Ar gas is inputted a low frequency (1 kHz ~ 100 kHz). We used shallow doping wafers existing PSG (Phosphorus Silicate Glass) on the shallow doping CZ P-type wafer (120 ohm/square). SIMS (Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy) are used for measuring wafer doping depth and concentration of phosphorus. We check that wafer's surface is not changed after plasma doping and atmospheric pressure doping width is broaden by increase of plasma treatment time and current.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.494-494
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• 2013

Atmospheric pressure non-thermal plasma of the needle-typed interaction with aqueous solutions has received increasing attention for their biomedical applications [1]. In this context, surface discharges at bio-solutions were investigated experimentally. We have generated the non-thermal plasma jet bombarding the bio-solution surface by using an Ar gas flow and investigated the emission lines by OES (optical emission spectroscopy) [2]. Moreover, The non-thermal plasma interaction with bio-solutions has received increasing attention for their biomedical applications. So we researched, the OH radical density of various biological solutions in the surface by non-thermal plasma were investigated by Ar gases. The OH radical density of DI water; deionized water, DMEM Dulbecco's modified eagle medium, and PBS; 1x phosphate buffered saline by non-thermal plasma jet. It is noted that the OH radical density of DI water and DMEM are measured to be about $4.33{\times}1016cm-3$ and $2.18{\times}1016cm-3$, respectively, under Ar gas flow 250 sccm (standard cubic centimeter per minute) in this experiment. The OH radical density of buffer solution such as PBS has also been investigated and measured to be value of about $2.18{\times}1016cm-3$ by the ultraviolet optical absorption spectroscopy.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Dyers and Finishers Conference
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• 2009.03a
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• pp.14-20
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• 2009

Atmospheric pressure air plasma was applied for treatment of different kinds of natural bamboo fiber to improve their mechanical properties and surface characteristics, which are suitable for adhesion and dyeing. The tensile strength and Young modulus of bamboo fiber were significantly improved; SEM and AFM study show that the surface of fiber became cleaner and rougher after plasma treatment. Plasma treatment caused the cracking, removing of the protective skin of alkali-untreated fiber and etching to form a cleaner and rougher surface. The dyeability of both groups of bamboo fiber which are used for composite and textile purposes is significantly enhanced after treatment.