Plasma – Small Flame with a Big Effect

Do you know what plasma is? Why it’s good and which areas it is already being used in? We might not be able to use plasma for turning straw into gold, like in fairy tales, but the mix of energies is still remarkable. Whether it’s fluorescent lamps, plasma screens or the coating of glass – plasma is considered the fourth fundamental state of matter after solid, liquid and gaseous and is omnipresent in our day-to-day lives. It is produced by applying large amounts of energy to a gas. This makes the gas atoms or molecules lose their outer electrons. Most plasma types are very hot. Cold plasma, on the other hand, has a lower temperature which enables it to be applied to living organisms. Plasma is a partially ionized gas which has a number of special components. In addition to the ions and electrons described above, these also include various reactive oxygen (ROS) and nitrogen species (RNS), but also UV radiation, visible light and other electromagnetic fields. In a plasma application, these components have a synergy effect on the material or tissue being treated.