A £6 million research centre will be set up in York to find new uses for low-temperature plasmas.

The University of York and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council have teamed up to create a world-leading plasma research centre, the York Plasma Institute.

With a new purpose-built laboratory, it will expand the university’s existing programme of hot plasma science research to include low-temperature plasmas for technological applications.

The researchers will work closely with industry to improve existing applications and develop new ones.

A plasma is a gas of charged ions and electrons, which can be relatively cool, such as in a modern television set or a fluorescent light bulb, or extremely hot, such as in the core of the sun.

Technological applications tend to employ cooler, low-temperature plasmas. They are used in a wide range of industrial and medical processes, including creating prosthetics, sterilisation of equipment and, potentially, in the treatment of wounds.

Professor Brian Cantor, the vice-chancellor of the University of York, said: “The York Plasma Institute provides an exciting environment to foster interdisciplinary development of plasma science and technology.

“It will nurture collaborative programmes between university academics and industry to maximise the value of our research and its impact on society.”

Professor Howard Wilson, the institute’s director, said: “The York Plasma Institute will provide a unique research and education facility in the UK, bringing high-temperature plasma studies for fusion energy under the same roof as low-temperature technological plasma studies, to exploit synergies between the fields and related disciplines, and drive collaborations with industry.”

The institute will have a dedicated industry officer to ensure the science is used to improve existing technology and develop new uses for, as yet, undiscovered plasmas.