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PALESTRA DE ABERTURA

Alexander Fridman Ph.D., Dr.Sci., is a Nyheim Chair Professor and director of the A.J. Drexel
Plasma Institute, working on new plasma approaches to material treatment, fuel conversion, envi-
ronmental control and bio-medical applications. He is one the pioneers of Plasma Medicine, President
of the International Society on plasma Medicine. Dr. Fridman is author of six books and over 450
publications in scientific journals. He has received numerous awards, including Stanley Kaplan
Distinguished Professorship of University of Illinois and George Soros Distinguished Professorship
in Physics, the DuPont research award, Chernobyl award, University of Illinois and Drexel University
Outstanding Research awards, Kurchatov Gold Medal for Achievements in Science and Technology.

NON-EQUILIBRIUM GLIDING ARC DISCHARGE PLASMA-STIMULATED MATERIAL TREATMENT AND ITS
APPLICATIONS TO AGRICULTURE: PATHOGEN CONTROL, PLANT GROWTH ENHANCEMENT, AND
REDUCTION OF IRRIGATION WATER CONSUMPTION
Alexander Fridman
A.J Drexel Plasma Institute, Drexel University Philadelphia, USA

Resumo
This presentation reviews the latest results obtained at the A.J. Drexel Plasma Institute, Drexel University, USA, related to non-
equilibrium gliding arc discharge plasma-stimulated material treatment and ist applications to agriculture. In the last 10+ years,
the emerging field of Plasma Medicine produced startling new advancements in development of new medically-relevant thera-
peutic treatments, ranging from sterilization of medical instruments to treatment of cancers in human clinical trials. Every day
new scientists are joining this ever-expanding new field of plasma chemistry and plasma physics and, no doubt, will create
many new valuable medical solutions. However, the advances in Plasma Medicine have also led to some interesting develop-
ments in the closely-related fields, creating new satellite technological solutions based on atmospheric plasmas. One such exam-
ple we want to highlight is the recent developments in the field of plasmas in agriculture. Agricultural applications, similar to
medical applications, involve interaction of non-equilibrium discharges with living plant cells and tissues and with soil.
Developments of plasma treatment of liquids for medical applications initiated this field, leading to the use of plasma-treated
water for seed germination, plant growth enhancement, and others. Significant breakthrough in this direction happened during
the last 3-5 years with introduction of transitional non-equilibrium plasmas (like the non-equilibrium gliding arc discharges and
the non-equilibrium pulsed power plasma systems). This opened the possibility of generating cold atmospheric plasmas at rela-
tively high power levels, sufficient to treat large volume of liquid. This, in turn, triggered possibility of large-scale applications
of plasma-activated water (of sufficiently-high water volume) for sterilization, washing, seed germination, plant growth stimu-
lation, etc, which has an important impact in food safety and agricultural applications..

22º CBECIMAT - Congresso Brasileiro de Engenharia e Ciência dos Materiais 13