• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.268-268
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• 2012

Atmospheric pressure microwave induced plasmas are used to excite and ionize chemical species for elemental analysis, for plasma reforming, and for plasma surface treatment. Microwave plasma differs significantly from other plasmas and has several interesting properties. For example, the electron density is higher in microwave plasma than in radio-frequency (RF) or direct current (DC) plasma. Several types of radical species with high density are generated under high electron density, so the reactivity of microwave plasma is expected to be very high [1]. Therefore, useful applications of atmospheric pressure microwave plasmas are expected. The surface characteristics of SUS304 stainless steel are investigated before and after surface modification by microwave plasma under atmospheric pressure conditions. The plasma device was operated by power sources with microwave frequency. We used a device based on a coaxial transmission line resonator (CTLR). The atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) in the case of microwave frequency (880 MHz) used Ar as plasma gas [2]. Typical microwave Pw was 3-10 W. To determine the optimal processing conditions, the surface treatment experiments were performed using various values of Pw (3-10 W), treatment time (5-120 s), and ratios of mixture gas (hydrogen peroxide). Torch-to-sample distance was fixed at the plasma edge point. Plasma treatment of a stainless steel plate significantly affected the wettability, contact angle (CA), and free energy (mJ/$m^2$) of the SUS304 surface. CA and ${\gamma}$ were analyzed. The optimal surface modification parameters to modify were a power of 10 W, a treatment time of 45 s, and a hydrogen peroxide content of 0.6 wt% [3]. Under these processing conditions, a CA of just $9.8^{\circ}$ was obtained. As CA decreased, wettability increased; i.e. the surface changed from hydrophobic to hydrophilic. From these results, 10 W power and 45 s treatment time are the best values to minimize CA and maximize ${\gamma}$.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.889-892
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• 2009

A microwave plasma torch at the atmospheric pressure by making use of magnetrons operated at the 2.45 GHz and used in a home microwave oven has been developed. This electrodeless torch can be used to various areas, including industrial, environmental and military applications. Although the microwave plasma torch has many applications, we in the present work focused on the microwave plasma torch operated in pure steam and several applications, which may be used in future and right now. For example, a high-temperature steam microwave plasma torch may have a potential application of the hydrocarbon fuel reforming at one atmospheric pressure. Moreover, the radicals including hydrogen, oxygen and hydroxide molecules are abundantly available in the steam torch, dramatically enhancing the reaction speed. Also, the microwave plasma torch can be used as a high-temperature, large-volume plasma burner by injecting hydrocarbon fuels in gas, liquid, and solid into the plasma flame. Lastly, we briefly report an underway research, which is remediation of soils contaminated with oils, volatile organic compounds, heavy metals, etc.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.498-498
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• 2013

Atmospheric Pressure Plasmas have pioneered a new field of plasma for biomedical application bridging plasma physics and biology. Biological and medical applications of plasmas have attracted considerable attention due to promising applications in medicine such as electro-surgery, dentistry, skin care and sterilization of heat-sensitive medical instruments [1]. Traditional approaches using electronic devices have limits in heating, high voltage shock, and high current shock for patients. It is a great demand for plasma medical industrial acceptance that the plasma generation device should be compact, inexpensive, and safe for patients. Microwave-excited micro-plasma has the highest feasibility compared with other types of plasma sources since it has the advantages of low power, low voltage, safety from high-voltage shock, electromagnetic compatibility, and long lifetime due to the low energy of striking ions [2]. Recent experiment [2] shows three-log reduction within 180-s treatment of S. mutans with a low-power palm-size microwave power module for biomedical application. Experiments using microwave plasma are discussed. This low-power palm-size microwave power module board includes a power amplifier (PA) chip, a phase locked loop (PLL) chip, and an impedance matching network. As it has been a success, more compact-size module is needed for the portability of microwave devices and for the various medical applications of microwave plasma source. For the plasma generator, a 1.35-GHz coaxial transmission line resonator (CTLR) [3] is used. The way of reducing the size and enhancing the performances of the module is examined.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.139-144
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• 2009

A microwave plasma torch at the atmospheric pressure by making use of magnetrons operated at the 2.45 GHz and used in a home microwave oven has been developed. This electrodeless torch can be used to various areas, including industrial, environmental and military applications. Although the microwave plasma torch has many applications, we in the present work focused on the microwave plasma torch operated in pure steam and several applications, which may be used in future and right now. For example, a high-temperature steam microwave plasma torch may have a potential application of the hydrocarbon fuel reforming at one atmospheric pressure. Moreover, the radicals including hydrogen, oxygen and hydroxide molecules are abundantly available in the steam torch, dramatically enhancing the reaction speed. Also, the microwave plasma torch can be used as a high-temperature, large-volume plasma burner by injecting hydrocarbon fuels in gas, liquid, and solid into the plasma flame. Finally, we briefly report treatment of soils contaminated with oils, volatile organic compounds, heavy metals, etc., which is an underway research in our group.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.152-152
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• 2012

In this work we measured electron temperature and electron density of a microplasma by optical emission spectroscopy. The plasma is generated from a small discharge gap of a microwave parallel stripline resonator (MPSR) in Helium at atmospheric pressure. The microwave power supplied for this plasma source from 0.5 to 5 watts at a frequency close to 800 MHz. The electron temperature and electron density were estimated through Collisional-radiative model combined with Corona-equilibrium model. The results show that the electron density and temperature of this plasma in the case small discharge gap width are higher than that in larger gap width. The diagnostic techniques and associated challenges will be presented and discussed.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.188-192
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• 2004

The main aim of this study was to investigate the sterilization effects of microwave-induced argon plasma at atmospheric pressure on paper materials contaminated with fungi. Plasma-treated filter papers showed no evidence to an unaided eye of burning or paper discoloration due to the plasma treatment. All fungi were perfectly sterilized in less than 1 sec, regardless of strains. These results indicate that this sterilization method for paper materials is easy to use, requires significantly less time than other traditional methods and different plasma sterilization methods, and is also nontoxic.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.151-151
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• 2011

Atmospheric-pressure plasmas are used in a variety of materials processes. The lifetime of most atmospheric-pressure plasma sources is limits by electrode erosion due to energetic ion bombardment. These drawbacks were solved recently by several microplasma sources based on microstrip structure, which are more efficient and less prone to perturbations than other microplasma sources. In this work, we propose microplasma sources based on strip line and microstrip line, developed for the generation of microplasmas even in atmospheric air and analyzes these systems with microwave field simulation via comparative study with two previous microwave sources (Microstrip Spit Ring Resonator (MSRR), Microstrip Structure Source (MSS)).

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.544-545
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• 2013

Recently, low-temperature atmospheric-pressure plasmas have been investigated [1,2] for biomedical applications and surface treatments. Experiments for improving hydrophilicity of stainless steel (SUS 304) plate with atmospheric microwave argon and H2O2 mixture plasma jet [3] were carried out and experimental measurements and plasma simulations were conducted for investigating the characteristics of plasma for the process. After 30 s of low power (under 10 W) and low temperature (under $50^{\circ}C$) plasma treatment, the water contact angle decreased rapidly to around $10^{\circ}$ from $75^{\circ}$ and was maintained under $30^{\circ}$ for a day (24 hours). The surface free energy, calculated from the contact angles, increased. The chemical properties of the surface were examined by X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and the surface morphology and roughness were examined by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) respectively. The characteristics of plasma sources with several frequencies were investigated by Optical Emission Spectroscopy (OES) measurement and one-dimensional Particle-in-Cell (PIC) simulation and zero-dimensional global simulation [4]. The relation between plasma components and the efficacy of the surface modification were discussed.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.905-907
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• 2014

The plasma and microwave surface treatments of carbon nanotubes that loaded on plastic substrates were carried out with expecting a change of carbon nanotube dispersion by increasing treatment time. The microwave treatment process was undergone by commercial microwave oven (800 W). The electrical property was measured by hall measurement and resistance was increased by increasing $O_2$ flow rate of plasma, suggesting an improvement of carbon nanotube dispersion and a possibility of controlling the resistances of carbon nanotubes by plasma surface treatment. The resistance was increased in both polyethylene terephthalate and polyimide substrates by increasing $O_2$ flow rate. Resistance changes only slightly with different $O_2$ flow treatment in measure rho for all polyimide samples. Sheet resistance is lowest in polyimide substrate not due to high carbon nanotube loading but due to tendency to remain in elongated structure. $O_2$ or $N_2$ plasma treatments on both polyethylene terephthalate and polyimide substrates lead to increase in sheet resistance.