Department of Civil, Environmental and Ocean Engineering, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, 07307, USA.
Department of Chemistry, Chemical Biology, and Biomedical Engineering, Charles V. Schaefer School of Engineering and Science, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, 07307, USA.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2018 Sep;25(27):26699-26706. doi: 10.1007/s11356-017-9169-0. Epub 2017 May 24.
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.
“等离子体激活水”（PAW）具有广泛的生物学活性，最近引起了广泛关注。通过气体放电等离子体处理水可得到具有优异广谱抗菌活性的酸性溶液。由于 PAW 会导致细菌的细胞膜严重损伤，并在细胞外基质中自由扩散，因此 PAW 还表现出良好的抗生物膜活性。然而，进一步的研究表明，等离子体处理带入 PAW 中的痕量金属离子（主要是铜和锌）在细菌失活中起着关键作用。金属离子对不同工作气体产生的 PAW 的抗菌活性的贡献有所不同。但是，等离子体中活性物质引起的溶液酸化是必不可少的。实验结果表明，应该考虑到报道的 PAW 生物学活性中潜在的人为假象。
