Design of bubble-based plasma sterilization system based on freestanding rotary triboelectric nanogenerator

Plasma activated water (PAW) has emerged an appealing strategy for sterilization and disinfectant. However, its rational combination with self-powered system is urgently need to study. In this work, a self-powered plasma sterilization system was proposed based on freestanding rotary triboelectric nanogenerator (FR-TENG). The FR-TENG serves as an efficient energy source to trigger the plasma discharge in the bubble between two electrodes. After clarifying the effect of rotary speed on the output performance of FR-TENG, the influence of composition and velocity of bubble on generation of reactive oxygen species is further investigated. As a result, this bubble-based discharge system with the rational design is able to generate PAW effectively. The generation of different active substances with bactericidal ability was further quantitively studied. Moreover, the analysis of sterilization efficiency and TEM image demonstrate the superior sterilization performance of the bubble-based plasma sterilizer. This study offers a feasible strategy to combine TENG with PAW technology for enhanced sterilization.