Water electrode plasma discharge to enhance the bacterial inactivation in water

Abstract

The present study used water-electrode plasma discharge to increase the effect of bacterial inactivation in water for bioengineering and biotechnological applications. The water-electrode plasma discharge system was fabricated using a newly designed plasma generator and a high-voltage power supply. Water contaminated with Escherichia coli was treated with water-electrode plasma discharge for 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 20 and 30 min. As a result, the colony-forming units (cfu) of E. coli were reduced with plasma treatment time, reaching nearly complete inactivation after 30 min. In addition, rapid generation of H2O2 in the contaminated water was observed, which could mainly account for the effective bacterial inactivation. In conclusion, direct generation of reactive chemical species under water was successfully achieved by using a water-electrode plasma discharge system, which could be practically used to enhance bacterial inactivation in a variety of bioengineering applications.