自動化大氣電漿設備建置與醫療用口罩去異味活化

The Setup of Automatic Atmospheric Pressure Plasma System for the Odor Removal on the Medical Facial Masks

根據新英格蘭醫學期刊（The New England Journal of Medicine）報導，COVID-19新冠狀病毒於外科口罩外層可存活至7天、金屬表面存活4小時。現有的口罩再次使用的相關文獻研究中顯示口罩滅菌再使用的方法則可採用乾熱（烘箱）、濕熱（蒸鍋）、高溫高壓滅菌、254nm紫外光、次氯酸鈉水與酒精等。上述這些方法雖然具備口罩殺菌消毒功能，但口罩材質屬於非耐熱性，常會造成口罩中間靜電過濾層、外部防潑水層破壞，進而降低口罩攔阻空氣中微粒的能力，因此並不建議作為口罩再使用的處理方法。本研究團隊提出以大氣電漿設備結合產業界能量（機械手臂與自動化設備）建置自動化大氣電漿設備，並以空氣作為工作氣體，優化設備製程參數針對醫療用口罩去除異味且活化，達到增加使用壽命。大氣電漿處理後之結果顯示，口罩外觀結構完整並無材料性質變化，且證實有殺菌效果並達到去異味之效能。相較於其他處理方式會破壞口罩結構，且因高溫造成的熔融等問題，使防疫效果大幅地降低，因此大氣電漿表面處理技術結合自動化設備能有效解決上述的問題，並能廣泛應用於其他材料的表面處理，對於生醫領域具有非常大的發展潛力。

According to the medial report made by The New England Journal of Medicine, the COVID-19 coronavirus can survive on the outer side of solid substrates for several days, depending on the types of substrates. Several literatures dealing with killing the bacteria or virus were referred using dry/wet thermal method, high pressure/high temperature chamber, UVC irradiation, sodium hypochlorite water, and ethyl alcohol. However, the materials used in facial masks are not thermal-durable, which will be damaged on the hydrophobic outer surface and electrostatic filter layer and degrade the function of facial masks. We reported a feasible method treating the facial masks by irradiating the atmospheric pressure plasma (APP), which was also integrated with the robotic arm and automation control unit. The optimization process of automated APP system using compressed dry air as the working gas was proposed. The results demonstrated the sterilizing effect and removal of odors on facial masks without any physical damages were feasibly achieved. APP system has many potentials on treating objects for biomedical applications, and it also offers the advantages such as cost-effectiveness using air as working gas and low temperature process without visible damages on treated objects.