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Conference: Bucharest University Faculty of Physics 2017 Meeting

Section: Optics, Spectroscopy, Plasma and Lasers

Title:

The effect of an atmospheric RF cold filamentary plasma jet on stored products pest and wheat germination

Authors:

Lavinia Gabriela CARPEN (1,2), Constantina CHIRECEANU (3), Maximilian TEODORESCU (1), Andrei CHIRILOAIE (3), Andrei TEODORU (3), Gheorghe DINESCU (1,2)

Affiliation:

1)National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Atomistilor 409, Magurele-Bucharest, 077125, Romania

2)Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest, Atomiştilor 405, Magurele, Bucharest, 077125, Romania

3)Research & Development Institute for Plant Protection, Ion Ionescu de la Brad 8, Bucharest, 013813, Romania

E-mail

lavinia.carpen@infim.ro

Keywords:

Atmospheric plasma jet, plasma treatment of seeds, pest control

Abstract:

A major problem in agricultural production is the presence of pests in stored products. It is an economical problem because pests reduce the food quality and the yield of various productions can decrease. The main strategies to destroy, prevent and repel the stored products pests is based on chemical pesticides. But this method is not an ecological one. This is the reason why new methods to prevent stored products pests has to be implemented.The species Tribolium Confusum and Tribolium Castaneum are the main worldwide pests that feed on various stored products [1]. Based on the experimental goal, these two species were chosen to perform our treatments. The objective of our study is to investigate the effect of a RF atmospheric filamentary plasma discharge (13.56 MHz, 90 W) in a closed environment onto the two species. We studied the most efficient type of discharge by changing gases (Argon, Argon/Oxygen and Argon/Nitrogen mixtures) [2], which does not adversely affect wheat, but rather even speed up the germination process. The adult insect mortality was studied based on three treatment parameters variable: gas mixture ratio, treatment time and distance between the plasma jet and the sample. Each sample consisted in 30 grams of wheat and 25 insects. We observed that, contrary to the control sample, the mortality rate increases in time, after treatment. In just one day after the treatment, the mortality is (86.6±8.32)% for T. castaneum. The other species T. confusum, proved to be more resistant to plasma treatment. The mortality rate increased when the distance between plasma and the wheat sample was decreased from 10 cm to 6 cm. Therefore, our results show that RF non-thermal filamentary plasma is promising important benefits for insect control and wheat germination.

References:

[1] S. Mohammadi, S. Imani, D. Dorranian, S. Tirgari, M. Shojaee, The effect of non-thermal plasma to control of stored product pests and changes in some characters of wheat materials, Journal of Biodiversity and Environmental Sciences, 7, 2015

[2] K.V. Donohue, B.L. Bures, M.A. Bourham, R.M. Roe, Effects of Temperature and Molecular Oxygen on the Use of Atmospheric Pressure Plasma as a Novel Method for Insect Control, Journal of Economic Entomology, 101(2), 2008

Acknowledgement:

This work has been financed by the National Authority for Research and Innovation in the frame of Nucleus programme-contract 4N/2016 and contract PN-III-P2-2.1-PED-2016-0287.