DefinePK

Abstract

Plasma has been used widely in health and science application as deactivator agent. One of the plasma applications in health is in water treatment. The study was focused on generating ultraviolet (UV) plasma to substitute the method of chlorination in water treatment due to harmful effect of chlorination toward living things. UV plasma was successfully generated via Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) in mercury-free electrodeless discharge tubes filled with non-toxic element such as argon and nitrogen gases. This is an alternative material as most of commercially available UV lamp is the one from mercury radiation, and mercury is known as a toxic material. Other than that, by using DBD as one type of electrodeless discharge (without internal electrode), the lamp lifetime can be improved as there is no chemical reaction between the electrodes and filling material as being applied in conventional type of discharge lamp. The study is conducted to observe the effectiveness of UV plasma radiation as an agent in deactivating cyanobacteria (Oscillatoria sp.) in a fresh water ecosystem. The effect of UV radiation on cyanobacteria (Oscillatoria sp.) was qualitatively observed. The UV plasma that produced need to meet the effective range of UV radiation which is thought at wavelength between 200 nm and 400 nm, and has higher intensity in order to help in deactivate the cyanobacteria (Oscillatoria sp.) effectively. The effect of UV plasma exposed towards the algae of cyanobacteria (Oscillatoria sp.) is studied morphologically at certain period of exposure. Experimental results showed that the UV plasma using mercury-free material give well-higher intensity and affect the most in deactivation of cyanobacteria (Oscillatoria sp.) compared to mercury-based lamp.