An atmospheric microplasma jet system powered by an commercial transformer is developed for investigating the sterilizing efficiency of Escherichia coli in different conditions. The device can be hand-held and operated in the open air. The effect of carrier gas, gas flow rate, distance and treatment time of inactivation is studied. According to the experiment, plasma jet is able to inactivate all the bacteria on the surface in 20 s when the air flow rate is 5 L/min and the distance is 2.0 cm. Besides, the sterilization efficacy with different carrier gas follows an order as bellow: N-2 > air > O-2 > Ar. The measurements of malondialdehyde content, protein leakage quantity and Mg content are performed as well. In addition, the SEM after plasma treatment reveals that the integrity of E. coli cells is damaged and intracellular particles are excreted into the extracellular space. With discussions upon the mechanisms of surface sterilization, it is found that during the treatment of microplasma, it is mainly the etching actions of electrons and ions on the bacilli that kill the E. coli. Chemical effects rather than physical ones that are responsible for inactivation. Furthermore, the experiment results suggest that there may be better sterilization effect with gas mixture as carrier gas.