Intensified inactivation of model and environmental bacteria by an atmospheric-pressure air-liquid discharge plasma compared with chlorination

作     者：Mingli Shao Chengsong Ye Ting Li Jiaming Gan Xin Yu Lei Wang Mingli Shao;Chengsong Ye;Ting Li;Jiaming Gan;Xin Yu;Lei Wang

作者机构：School of Environmental Science&EngineeringXiamen University of TechnologyXiamen 361024China College of the Environment&EcologyXiamen UniversityXiamen 361102China 

出 版 物：《Journal of Environmental Sciences》 (环境科学学报（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2022年第34卷第7期

页      面：80-90页

核心收录：

学科分类：08[工学] 0815[工学-水利工程] 

基　　金：supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41861144023 and U2005206) the Natural and Science Guiding Project of Fujian Province (No. 2019H0036) the Xiamen Municipal Bureau of Science and Technology (No. YDZX20203502000003) 

主　　题：Air-liquid discharge plasma Pathogenic bacteria Viable but non-culturable state Intracellular-and extracellular genes Disinfection mechanism 

摘      要：Water-borne pathogenic bacteria are always the top priority to be removed through disinfection process in water treatment due to their threat to human health. It was necessary to develop novel disinfection methods since the conventional chlorine disinfection was inefficient in inactivating chlorine-resistant bacteria, inducing the viable but non-culturable(VBNC) bacteria and forming disinfection by-products(DBPs). In this study, the inactivation of four model strains including Gram-negative(G), Gram-positive(G) and environmental samples by atmospheric-pressure air-liquid discharge plasma(ALDP) was assessed systematically. The results showed that ALDP was superior in inactivating all of the samples compared with chlorination. During 10 min ALDP treatment, the Gbacteria were completely inactivated, and the Gone was inactivated by more than 4.61 logs. The inactivation of bacteria from a campus lake and a wastewater treatment plant effluent exceeded 99.82% and 97.78%, respectively. For G-bacteria, ALDP resulted in a much lower(10~2~10~3 times) levels of VBNC cells than chlorination. ALDP could effectively remove the chlorine-resistant bacteria. More than 96.41% of the intracellular DNA and 99.99% of the extracellular DNA were removed, whereas it was only 56.35% and 12.82% for chlorination. ALDP had a stronger ability to destroy cell structure than chlorination, presumably due to the existence of ROS( ·OH, ~1Oand O). GC-MS analysis showed that ALDP produced less DBPs than chlorination. These findings provided new insights for the application of discharge plasma in water disinfection, which could be complemental or alternative to the conventional disinfection methods.