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Cold‐chain transport is a crucial cross‐regional transmission pathway for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and other microorganisms. In this study, the mode‐combination method is adopted for sterilization in a 1.138 m3 freezer by mixing effluent gases of NOx and O3 mode air discharges. The mixed gas can effectively inactivate Staphylococcus aureus in 10 mm ice within 3 h, which significantly surpasses O3 gas. Moreover, the inactivation effect of the mixed gas can penetrate deep into ice, contrasting with the surface effect of O3 gas. This disparity is linked to the difference in penetration depth of strong oxidizing long‐lived reactive species. This study validates the sterilization efficacy of cold atmospheric plasma in practical cold‐chain environment, critical for curbing infectious disease transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interaction between an atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) and an aqueous solution has great application prospects in biomedicine and many other fields. Reactive species adjacent to a water surface is critical to the activation of APPJ-treated water, which is affected by both the water evaporation and the admixture of ambient air. In this paper, taking He APPJ as an example, a two-dimensional (2D) cylindrically symmetric fluid model is developed to obtain the spatial distributions of gas components before discharging, and a series of global models are developed for the discharge in the boundary gas layer adjacent to the water surface. The interfacial distributions of reactive species and their fluxes onto the water surface are quantified. It is found that the electron density is 1016–1017 m−3 and it shows an annular distribution in the boundary gas layer. The density distributions of most reactive species there reveal ring-like shapes as well. The dominant cation and anion in such a boundary layer are H3O+ and OH−, respectively. The most abundant metastable is O2(a1Δ), the most abundant reactive oxygen species are H2O2 and OH, and the most abundant reactive nitrogen species are NO and HNO2. The species of H2O2, OH, HO2, and HNO2 are reportedly to have significant biological effects, and in our simulation, their fluxes onto the water surface are remarkable, higher than 1017 m−2 s−1. In addition, the effects of radial gas velocity and water evaporation on the particle flux distributions are also revealed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plasma-activated water can efficiently inactivate pathogenic microorganisms and is considered to be a potent disinfectant in the medical, food, and agricultural industries. In this study, the air discharged by the gliding arc was mixed with different gases including O2, ambient air, synthetic air, and N2 at different flow rates to produce the activated gases, which were then activated gases were inducted into saline to prepare plasma-activated saline (PAS). The gaseous reactive species in the activated gases were composed of NO, NO2, and N2O5 and the aqueous reactive species in the PAS included H2O2, NO2−, NO3–, ⋅ OH , and 1O2 with different intensities, while the inactivation effects of the PAS also varied with the type and the flow rates of the mixed gases in the activated gases. The inactivation effects of the PAS treated by the discharged air mixed with O2, ambient air, and synthetic air started to become weak after 3 h placement. Scavenger analysis demonstrated that the 1O2 played a critical role in the inactivation process. This study indicated that air discharged by the gliding arc mixed with different gases could regulate the reactive species and the biological effects of PAS, providing insight into the preparation of PAS applied for disinfection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) in cancer therapy has recently received extensive attention. However, researchers have mainly studied the effects of CAP on plasma-irradiated cancer cells and have not determined whether CAP affects surrounding or distant non-irradiated cancer cells. Here, the viability and intracellular reactive oxygen species levels of plasma-irradiated and non-irradiated cancer cells were monitored in vitro. Our results showed that CAP may induce plasma-irradiated cancer cells (A549 cells, A375 cells, J82 cells and HT29 cells) to secrete soluble factors into the cell culture medium, which can transmit plasma-induced anticancer effects from plasma-irradiated cancer cells to non-irradiated cancer cells. Our research confirmed that plasma-induced anticancer effects can be transmitted between cancer cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shortening the duration of the viral shedding of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) is critical to controlling viral transmission, alleviating the burden on the healthcare system, and ultimately mitigating the impact of the pandemic. This randomized, single‐blind, placebo‐controlled clinical trial aimed to investigate the safety and efficacy of gargling with plasma‐activated water (PAW) on prolonged viral shedding in patients infected with SARS‐CoV‐2 Delta and Omicron variants. Sixty‐two subjects, aged 18–80 years and infected with SARS‐CoV‐2, were recruited at two coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19)‐designated hospitals in Shaanxi from January to March 2022. Primary outcomes included cumulative conversion rates, incidence of adverse reactions, and biosafety parameters. Results suggested that PAW gargling treatment might contribute to reducing the duration of SARS‐CoV‐2 Delta and Omicron variant infections and alleviating symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In photocatalysis, catalysts are crucial for effective charge transfer and separation. Using Mo-MOF and CdCo-MOF as precursors, we have designed an effective Cd0.76Cd0.17Mo0.07S (Ethy-CCMS) photocatalyst. We compared the performance of samples prepared in different environments and found that the rod-shaped Ethy-CCMS prepared in an alkaline environment provided by ethylenediamine exhibited the highest photocatalytic hydrogen production activity with an efficiency of 30.14 mmol g−1 h−1, which was 32.2 times higher than that of the CdS prepared under aqueous solution conditions. The solid solution formed can accelerate the separation of photogenerated electrons and avoid the formation of high oxidation power h+ compared to CdS alone. In addition, adding Mo and Co enables these three metals to form bonds with S. The shared S-bond improves the stability of the material and significantly mitigates the photocorrosion phenomenon. This study investigates the role of sulfides derived from Mo-MOF and CdCo-MOF as sustainable and promising co-catalyst candidates to enhance the photocatalytic performance of CdS-based composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ammonia plays a crucial role in industry and agriculture worldwide, but traditional industrial ammonia production methods are energy‐intensive and negatively impact the environment. Ammonia synthesis using low‐temperature plasma technology has gained traction in the pursuit of environment‐benign and cost‐effective methods for producing green ammonia. This Review discusses the recent advances in low‐temperature plasma‐assisted ammonia synthesis, focusing on three main routes: N2+H2 plasma‐only, N2+H2O plasma‐only, and plasma coupled with other technologies. The reaction pathways involved in the plasma‐assisted ammonia synthesis, as well as the process parameters, including the optimum catalyst types and discharge schemes, are examined. Building upon the current research status, the challenges and research opportunities in the plasma‐assisted ammonia synthesis processes are outlined. The article concludes with the outlook for the future development of the plasma‐assisted ammonia synthesis technology in real‐life industrial applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study introduces a novel method for online vacuum monitoring of vacuum circuit breakers, which overcomes the limitations of conventional offline monitoring methods in engineering applications. Specifically, the proposed method uses laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) in combination with the random forest (RF) algorithm to monitor the vacuum level of the breaker. The experimental setup included the selection spectral lines from four elements (one in the target material and three in the ambient gas). Spectral data were collected using the LIBS platform under various pressure conditions ranging from 10−3 Pa to 105 Pa. An RF model was established to classify the pressure level using spectral data. The classification performance is tested with a confusion matrix. We employed various spectral preprocessing techniques to enhance the distinctiveness of spectral features. The choice of the optimal preprocessing method was determined by assessing the correlation coefficient (R2) and root mean square error (RMSE), resulting in improved accuracy in vacuum level classification. The variable importance random forest (VIRF) algorithm was also employed for feature selection on the raw spectra to eliminate redundant information, thus enhancing the model's efficiency and accuracy. Utilizing out-of-bag (OOB) error as the evaluation metric, we systematically explored the impact of decision tree quantity (ntree) and the number of selected features (mtry) on the model's performance, optimizing it to its highest performance. The results indicate that the proposed method can achieve an accuracy of over 99% of vacuum classification, comparable to traditional offline vacuum monitoring technology. This demonstrates that LIBS technology combined with the RF algorithm represents a promising new approach for online vacuum monitoring of vacuum circuit breakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]