Xianhui Zhang

The cold and atmospheric-pressure air surface barrier discharge plasma for large-area sterilization applications

This letter reports a stable air surface barrier discharge device for large-area sterilization applications at room temperature. This design may result in visually uniform plasmas with the electrode area scaled up (or down) to the required size. A comparison for the survival rates of Escherichia coli from air, N2 and O2 surface barrier discharge plasmas is presented, and the air surface plasma consisting of strong filamentary discharges can efficiently kill Escherichia coli. Optical emission measurements indicate that reactive species such as O and OH generated in the room temperature air plasmas play a significant role in the sterilization process.

Atmospheric cold plasma jet for plant disease treatment

This study shows that the atmospheric cold plasma jet is capable of curing the fungus-infected plant leaves and controlling the spread of infection as an attractive tool for plant disease management. The healing effect was significantly dependent on the size of the black spots infected with fungal cells and the leaf age. The leaves with the diameter of black spots of <2 mm can completely recover from the fungus-infected state. The plasma-generated species passing through the microns-sized stomas in a leaf can weaken the function of the oil vacuoles and cell membrane of fungal cells, resulting in plasma-induced inactivation.

Effects of Atmospheric-Pressure N2, He, Air, and O2 Microplasmas on Mung Bean Seed Germination and Seedling Growth.

Atmospheric-pressure N2, He, air, and O2 microplasma arrays have been used to investigate the effects of plasma treatment on seed germination and seedling growth of mung bean in aqueous solution. Seed germination and growth of mung bean were found to strongly depend on the feed gases used to generate plasma and plasma treatment time. Compared to the treatment with atmospheric-pressure O2, N2 and He microplasma arrays, treatment with air microplasma arrays was shown to be more efficient in improving both the seed germination rate and seedling growth, the effect attributed to solution acidification and interactions with plasma-generated reactive oxygen and nitrogen species. Acidic environment caused by air discharge in water may promote leathering of seed chaps, thus enhancing the germination rate of mung bean, and stimulating the growth of hypocotyl and radicle. The interactions between plasma-generated reactive species, such as hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and nitrogen compounds, and seeds led to a significant acceleration of seed germination and an increase in seedling length of mung bean. Electrolyte leakage rate of mung bean seeds soaked in solution activated using air microplasma was the lowest, while the catalase activity of thus-treated mung bean seeds was the highest compared to other types of microplasma.

High performance of Ge@C nanocables as the anode for lithium ion batteries

Germanium is a promising high-capacity anode material for lithium ion batteries. But as a huge volume variation always occurs during the charge/discharge process, it usually exhibits poor cycling stability. Herein, a low-cost Ge precursor was used for the preparation of Ge@C core–shell composited NWs by a facile and “green” synthetic route. The Ge@C nanocomposites, as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries, exhibited a high initial discharge capacity of 1648 mA h g−1 and superior rate capability. In particular, Ge@C nanocomposite electrodes maintained a reversible capacity of 1086 mA h g−1 after repeated cycling at a current density of 0.5 C (600 mA g−1) over 200 cycles.

Atmospheric-pressure air microplasma jets in aqueous media for the inactivation of Pseudomonas fluorescens cells

The hollow fiber-based cold air microplasma jet array running at atmospheric pressure has been designed to inactivate Pseudomonas fluorescens (P. fluorescens) cells in vitro in aqueous media. The influences of electrode configurations, air flow rate, and applied voltage on the discharge characteristics of the single microplasma jet operating in aqueous media are presented, and the bactericidal efficiency of the hollow fibers-based and large-volume microplasma jet array is reported. Optical emission spectroscopy is utilized to identify excited species during the antibacterial testing of plasma in solutions. These well-aligned and rather stable air microplasma jets containing a variety of short-lived species, such as OH and O radicals and charged particles, are in direct contact with aqueous media and are very effective in killing P. fluorescens cells in aqueous media. This design shows its potential application for atmospheric pressure air plasma inactivation of bacteria cells in aqueous media.

Interaction of Atmospheric-Pressure Air Microplasmas with Amino Acids as Fundamental Processes in Aqueous Solution

Plasma medicine is a relatively new field that investigates potential applications of cold atmospheric-pressure plasmas in bioengineering, such as for bacterial inactivation and degradation of organic molecules in water. In order to enunciate mechanisms of bacterial inactivation at molecular or atomic levels, we investigated the interaction of atmospheric-pressure air microplasmas with amino acids in aqueous solution by using high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS). Results show that the oxidation effect of plasma-induced species on the side chains of the amino acids can be categorized into four types, namely hydroxylation, nitration, dehydrogenation and dimerization. In addition, relative activities of amino acids resulting from plasma treatment come in descending order as follows: sulfur-containing carbon-chain amino acids > aromatic amino acids > five-membered ring amino acids > basic carbon-chain amino acids. Since amino acids are building blocks of proteins vital to the growth and reproduction of bacteria, these results provide an insight into the mechanism of bacterial inactivation by plasma.

Synergistic Effect of Atmospheric-pressure Plasma and TiO2 Photocatalysis on Inactivation of Escherichia coli Cells in Aqueous Media.

Atmospheric-pressure plasma and TiO2 photocatalysis have been widely investigated separately for the management and reduction of microorganisms in aqueous solutions. In this paper, the two methods were combined in order to achieve a more profound understanding of their interactions in disinfection of water contaminated by Escherichia coli. Under water discharges carried out by microplasma jet arrays can result in a rapid inactivation of E. coli cells. The inactivation efficiency is largely dependent on the feed gases used, the plasma treatment time, and the discharge power. Compared to atmospheric-pressure N2, He and air microplasma arrays, O2 microplasma had the highest activity against E. coli cells in aqueous solution, and showed >99.9% bacterial inactivation efficiency within 4 min. Addition of TiO2 photocatalytic film to the plasma discharge reactor significantly enhanced the inactivation efficiency of the O2 microplasma system, decreasing the time required to achieve 99.9% killing of E. coli cells to 1 min. This may be attributed to the enhancement of ROS generation due to high catalytic activity and stability of the TiO2 photocatalyst in the combined plasma-TiO2 systems. Present work demonstrated the synergistic effect of the two agents, which can be correlated in order to maximize treatment efficiency.

Inactivation of Escherichia coli Cells in Aqueous Solution by Atmospheric-Pressure N2, He, Air, and O2 Microplasmas

ABSTRACT Atmospheric-pressure N2, He, air, and O2 microplasma arrays have been used to inactivate Escherichia coli cells suspended in aqueous solution. Measurements show that the efficiency of inactivation of E. coli cells is strongly dependent on the feed gases used, the plasma treatment time, and the discharge power. Compared to atmospheric-pressure N2 and He microplasma arrays, air and O2 microplasma arrays may be utilized to more efficiently kill E. coli cells in aqueous solution. The efficiencies of inactivation of E. coli cells in water can be well described by using the chemical reaction rate model, where reactive oxygen species play a crucial role in the inactivation process. Analysis indicates that plasma-generated reactive species can react with E. coli cells in water by direct or indirect interactions.

Direct synthesis of hydrogen peroxide from plasma-water interactions

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is usually considered to be an important reagent in green chemistry since water is the only by-product in H2O2 involved oxidation reactions. Early studies show that direct synthesis of H2O2 by plasma-water interactions is possible, while the factors affecting the H2O2 production in this method remain unclear. Herein, we present a study on the H2O2 synthesis by atmospheric pressure plasma-water interactions. The results indicate that the most important factors for the H2O2 production are the processes taking place at the plasma-water interface, including sputtering, electric field induced hydrated ion emission, and evaporation. The H2O2 production rate reaches ~1200 μmol/h when the liquid cathode is purified water or an aqueous solution of NaCl with an initial conductivity of 10500 μS cm−1.

Facile synthesis of cuprous oxide nanoparticles by plasma electrochemistry

We report on a simple plasma electrochemistry method for synthesizing cuprous oxide (Cu2O) nanoparticles in the presence of glucose. In this system, Ar plasma in contact with a NaCl solution was used as one electrode, and a Cu plate was immersed in the solution as the counter electrode. The plasma-solution interaction produced many reducing and oxidizing species which can react with the Cu ions released from the Cu electrode. Cu2O nanoparticles, with an average diameter of 22 +/- 6 nm, were formed under the competition of reducing and oxidizing reactions in the solution. The results show that the glucose added in the electrolyte strongly influences the properties of the products. Corresponding to high, medium, and low concentrations of glucose, the products were nanoparticles from amorphous Cu2O, polycrystalline Cu2O, and a mixture of polycrystalline Cu2O and Cu2Cl(OH)(3), respectively.