Special Session "Education and Research in Plasma Biology and Medicine"

This session is planned during the conference. It concerns biomedical applications of plasmas. Plasma in this sense is a partially ionized gas, and the applications in view include sterilization, wound treatment and manufacturing of biomedical devices. These applications are made possible by the exotic chemical properties of low-temperature plasmas, which are a rich source of chemically active radicals, energetic ions and photons. A typical plasma process depends on the synergistic interaction of several such species. In some cases, the intense electric fields produced by plasmas may also be important. A critical property of plasma processes is that they can operate essentially at room temperature. The exotic chemistry is activated by hot electrons, but these electrons are few in number and contribute little to the energy density of the plasma, which is dominated by cooler neutral species. The essential attraction of plasmas is therefore that they combine high-temperature chemistry with a moderate ambient temperature. This means that objects immersed in the plasma can be exposed to exotic chemistry without experiencing severe thermal loading. Historically, plasma processing has taken place in vacuum systems. In recent years, however, interest has grown in atmospheric pressure plasma processing, which does not involve a vacuum chamber. This enormously expands the range of potential applications.