Upgrading the production of plasma-activated water for sterilization by preloading long-lived reactive species
Zifeng Wang, Xiangyu Wang, Shenghang Xu, Dingxin Liu, Jingyao Zhang, Qiuyi Yue, Luge Wang, Pengfei Zhang, Yikang Jia, Jishen Zhang, Li Guo, Dandan Pei, Chang Liu, Mingzhe Rong
Abstract
Abstract Plasma-activated water (PAW) has broad prospects in the medical field because it is rich in reactive nitrogen and oxygen species. However, in most production processes of PAW, a large proportion of gaseous reactive species is converted into long-lived aqueous species with minor biochemical activity, and only a small proportion is converted into crucial short-lived aqueous species, which results in inefficient activation of PAW. Given the indispensability and easy availability of long-lived aqueous species, this study proposes to preload HNO 3 and H 2 O 2 into water and then generate plasma to induce short-lived aqueous species, thus improving the production rate of PAW. The addition of 1 mM HNO 3 and 0.5% H 2 O 2 results in a 100-fold increase in the production rate of the PAW with a bactericidal rate exceeding 99.9999%, and the preloaded HNO 3 and H 2 O 2 promote the dissolution of O 3 and the generation of short-lived aqueous species, respectively. Moreover, the preloaded species improve the validity period of PAW and the resistance of sterilization to acid-base neutralizers. This study offers a novel approach for upgrading the production of PAW, which holds promise for realizing rapid PAW production with a portable device for clinical medical applications.