adminMaksudbek Yusupov | Debbie Dewaele | Pankaj Attri | Umedjon Khalilov | Frank Sobott | Annemie Bogaerts
Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) is a promising technology for several medical applications, including the removal of biofilms from surfaces. However, the molecular mechanisms of CAP treatment are still poorly understood. Here we unravel the possible mechanisms of CAP‐induced oxidation of oligosaccharides, employing reactive molecular dynamics simulations based on the density functional‐tight binding potential. Specifically, we find that the interaction of oxygen atoms (used as CAP‐generated reactive species) with cellotriose (a model system for the oligosaccharides) can break structurally important glycosidic bonds,
which subsequently leads to the disruption of the oligosaccharide molecule. The over- all results help to shed light on our experimental evidence for cellotriose oxidation by CAP. This study provides atomic‐level insight into the onset of plasma‐induced
removal of biofilms, as oligosaccharides are one of the main components of biofilm.