Ultralong-lasting plasma-activated water: production and control mechanisms

Abstract Despite the rapidly growing interest stemming from the broad-spectrum, high inactivation capacity, and environmental friendliness of the plasma-activated water (PAW), practical applications are limited because of the PAW’s short lifetime. While low-temperature storage can extend the lifetime, but the freezing and thawing processes are energy- and labor-intense and are generally not suitable for large-scale applications such as environmental and biomedical disinfection. This work addresses this issue by developing the ultra-long-life PAW at room temperature. The innovative approach is based on using DC needle-water discharges, wherein the gaseous products are blown out and absorbed separately by a gas flow. By simply adjusting the voltage and gas flow rates, two distinctive types of PAW with acidic hydrogen peroxide and nitrite as the main products are produced and separated in the discharge chamber and gas bubbling chamber. Intentional mixing of these two PAWs causes a chain chemical reaction dominated by peroxynitrite (ONOOH). This reaction can generate a variety of short-lived reactive species, thereby achieving the ultralong-lasting PAW with very stable bactericidal ability. This study further demonstrates the ability to effectively control the reaction products in both chambers and provides insights into the secondary activation mechanism of short-lived reactive species stimulated by ONOOH.