بناء منظومة بلازما نفث الضغط الجوي الباردة لمعالجة إنبات بذور الحنطة العراقية ونموها.

Construction of Cold Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Jet System for Treatment of Germination and Growth of Iraqi Wheat

Cold plasma is promising and a safe technology that has succeeded in many applications such as medicine, biomedical, industry and agriculture. In this work Iraqi wheat seeds were treated by cold atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) system, the system was designed and constructed in advanced plasma laboratory in University of Kerbala, College of Science, Physics Department. A different types of electrodes (Al, Cu, and Ag) configuration were examined in order to diagnostics of the plasma characteristics to reach the optimum quality. Argon as a feeding noble, the optical and electrical properties were checked, the electron temperature and electron density were measured by spectroscopy Boltzmann plot method, the plasma plume jet, and the jet temperature were measured for each plasma jet.
The cold plasma that was produced by using argon gas by 98% and oxygen by 2% was investigated. The optical and electrical properties were determined and comprised with that of Argon plasma jet.
The longer plasma jet has been obtaind by using Al-electrode (3.8 cm) comparing with these of Ag-electrode (3.6 cm) and Cu-electrode (3.3 cm), with the same condition. The temperature of the atmospheric plasma jet with Al-electrode is 26.5 ºC smaller than those of (Ag) 27 ºC and Cu 28.5 ºC electrodes. The electron temperature of the plasma when using the Al electrodes is equivalent to 0.8349 (eV), while the electron temperature of both Cu and Ag electrodes were equivalent to 0.8622 (eV) and 1.2466 (eV) respectively. The reactive species intensities of produced plasma with Al electrodes are bigger than those of others. The results showed that the quality of plasma jet with Al-electrode was the optimum one.
The plasma jet temperature and the plasma plume length of mixed plasma were determined and comprised with that of Argon plasma jet. The intensity of all produced reactive spices of mixed gas plasma jet is higher than of those of Argon plasma jet. The plasma jet length of mixed plasma is higher than that of argon plasma, the jet length of mixed plasma was 2.5 cm, whereas, it was 1.8 cm for argon plasma jet at 9kV. The plasma jet temperature for mixed gas is smaller than that of Argon gas plasma jet were 24.5C and 25.5 C respectively at 9kV.
The potential of the generated plasma for improving the Iraqi wheat germination and growth was investigated. Five Iraqi wheat seeds sample were treated by argon and mixed gas plasma jet with 2,4,6,8, and 10 minutes for each sample. Then the treated seeds and controlled sample were farmed in a growth cabinet at 25±1C, illumination (1500-1800 Lux) and humidity of 60-70%.
The results revealed that there was a good enhancement in the growth and germination ratio of Iraqi wheat. Furthermore, the germination and growth ratio of treated wheat seeds by mixed gas (APPJ) was batter over than that of treated seeds by Argon gas (APPJ). The germinated ratio was 90% and the speed of germination was 10.26 seeds/day in case of Argon gas (APPJ). In addition, the germination ratio, and speed of germination were improved over that of mixed gas (APPJ), they became 92% for germination ratio and 12.8 for the speed of germination. Moreover, the seedling vigour index was 25.5 for treated seeds by mixed plasma and 13.5 for those treated by Argon gas APPJ.