| The thesis deals with the inactivation mechanisms of microorganisms (mainly endospores) after an ozone treatment. The general objective of this work was to provide an experimental strategy to identify the phenomena and chemical species involved in microorganism inactivation mechanism using multidisciplinary techniques. Recall that the recent advances in plasma sterilization are mainly due to comprehensive studies dealing with the inactivation mechanisms of microorganisms.;In a second part, we show for the first time the possibility to confer biocide activity to surfaces of polystyrene (PS) Petri dishes after their exposure to ozone. A characterization study of these treated surfaces mainly shows a high inactivation efficacy on various microorganisms, the importance of the microorganisms/treated-surface interaction, the biocide persistence of the treated surfaces and physico-chemical modifications. The study on physico-chemical and microbiological changes gives us elements for identifying the phenomena involved in the inactivation mechanisms. Finally, we have shown the possibility to confer biocide properties to polymeric surfaces in general with the same experimental process observing that the biocide efficacy depends on the nature of the polymer.;Keywords: sterilization, dry and humid ozone, absorption spectroscopy, bacterial spores, thermo-sensitive polymers, surface characterization;In this context, based on a review of published studies, we proposed a two-step experimental study of ozone sterilization in both dry and humid media. In the course of this work, we have examined the inactivation kinetics of some microorganisms, their damage after treatments; we have also identified the chemical species responsible for inactivation, and proposed an inactivation mechanism (for each type of ozone treatment) by describing the importance and role of the different implicated phenomena. The originality of our approach rests on the correlation achieved between the dry and humid ozone treatment, and by the diversity and complementarity of the characterization techniques used. |
