Physical mechanism of aluminum contamination presented in H2O2 plasma sterilization

In this paper, it is first demonstrated that Aluminum (Al) contamination is present; H2O2 plasma sterilization is widely used for sterilization of surgical instruments. The contamination amount of Al can reach as high as 7.9 × 1012 atoms/cm2. Aluminum is well known as a harmful element to human health, which may damage bones and the brain. During the use of the surgical instruments after H2O2 plasma sterilization in surgery, the contaminated Al may enter and reside in the human body and threaten the health and even life safety. Therefore, it is necessary to study the Al contamination present in H2O2 plasma sterilization to arouse public attention and take countermeasures. The physical mechanism of the Al contamination presented in H2O2 plasma sterilization is diffusion. In our previous study, we developed two physical models for calculating the diffusion coefficient. In this study, both models are used to calculate the diffusion coefficient of the contaminated Al in sterilized Si samples. From the calculation results, it is inferred that the contamination mechanism of Al presented in H2O2 plasma sterilization is closer to the model, where the diffusion coefficient value is a function of the plasma treatment time.