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Plasma-activated water: antibacterial activity and artifacts?

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Abstract

Broad biological activities of “plasma-activated water” (PAW) have drawn great attentions recently. Treatment of water using gas discharge plasma led to acidic solutions with excellent and broad antibacterial activity. Because PAW caused severe membrane damages in bacteria and diffused freely in extracellular matrix, PAW also demonstrated good anti-biofilm activity. However, further studies revealed that trace amounts of metal ions (mainly copper and zinc) in PAW brought by plasma treatment played key roles in bacteria inactivation. The contribution of metal ions to the antibacterial activity varied among PAWs from different working gases. However, solution acidification caused by reactive species in plasma was essential. The experimental results demonstrated that potential artifacts in reported biological activities of PAWs should be considered.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr. Christian Traba for his assistance in scanning electron microscopy and confocal microscopy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil, Environmental and Ocean Engineering, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, 07307, USA

    Tung-Po Chen & Tsan-Liang Su

  2. Department of Chemistry, Chemical Biology, and Biomedical Engineering, Charles V. Schaefer School of Engineering and Science, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, 07307, USA

    Junfeng Liang

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  1. Tung-Po Chen
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  2. Junfeng Liang
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Correspondence to Junfeng Liang or Tsan-Liang Su.

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Responsible editor: Bingcai Pan

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Chen, TP., Liang, J. & Su, TL. Plasma-activated water: antibacterial activity and artifacts?. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25, 26699–26706 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-9169-0

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