ARIPT was officially established on April 22 under a certificate of registration of science and technology activities granted by the Hanoi Science and Technology Department.

Dr Nguyen The Anh, head of the institute (left), and Dr Do Hoang Tung, deputy head of the institute.

This is the first time Vietnam has a science and technology institution carrying out in-depth research on the applications of Plasma technology.

Plasma is the fourth state of matter (the other three more commonly seen are solid, liquid and gas), in which substances are strongly ionized. Though plasma is not very common on the earth, but more than 99 percent of visible matters in the universe exist in the form of plasma.

If considering thermodynamic properties, there are two types of plasma: thermal plasma, which is formed at high temperature, pressure and energy, and cold plasma, which is formed at normal or vacuum pressure and needs less energy.

If considering thermodynamic properties, there are two types of plasma: thermal plasma, which is formed at high temperature, pressure and energy, and cold plasma, which is formed at normal or vacuum pressure and needs less energy.

In the last 10 years, advanced countries have been gathering resources in research to utilize plasma in many fields, including biomedicine, chemistry, agriculture and industry.

There could be numerous applications of plasma technology. Plasma technology, especially cold plasma, is believed to be able to exceed the limits that other technologies cannot, with the ultimate goal of reducing production cost, increasing energy efficiency and mitigating adverse effects to the environment.

Plasma physics, for example, has been used by famous electronics manufacturers, including Samsung and Panasonic, to create lighting equipment, and make electronic chips and paint technology.

Plasma medicine, an emerging field that combines plasma physics, life sciences and clinical medicine, has also been used in clinical treatment in Germany to treat slowly healing bacteria-contaminated wounds.

More recently, cold plasma has also been used in seed storage and pre-cultivation treatment, which improves germination rates and promotes seedling growth.

In Vietnam, cold plasma technology has been better known with the applications in medicine and its efficiency has been proven.

Some science and technology institutions have begun carrying out the research on utilizing plasma technology in general and cold plasma in particular, in material and environment science.

However, in general, domestic research is still not popular, partly because the research of this kind requires a high level of technology and many expensive equipment that few laboratories are equipped with.

The leaders of ARIPT are famous names – Dr Nguyen The Anh, head of the institute, and Dr Do Hoang Tung, deputy head of the institute.

The two scientists are famous for utilizing plasma technology in treating open wounds without antibiotics in Vietnam. Both of them are working at the Physics Institute under the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology. 

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