Freshwater is only 2.5% of the total water on the Earth and rest is contaminated or brackish. Various physical and chemical techniques are being used to purify the contaminated water. This study deals with catalytic plasma treatment of contaminated water collected from different sites of Faisalabad-Pakistan. A non-thermal DC plasma jet technique was used to treat the water samples in the presence of TiO2 catalyst. The plasma-assisted catalytic treatment introduced some oxidative species (O3, H2O2, HO2−, OH−) in the water. These species reacted with pollutants and cause the degradation of harmful contaminants, especially dyes. The degradation of dye sample during plasma treatment was more pronounced as compared to other samples. pH, conductivity and TDS of dye containing sample decreased after catalytic plasma treatment. The degradation of organic pollutants increased due to presence of several oxidants, such as TiO2, ferrous ions and hydrogen peroxide. FT-IR analysis revealed the degradation of some functional groups during treatment process and confirmed the effectiveness of the process. The residue of the treated samples was consisted of amines, amides and N-H functional groups. XRD analysis showed the presence of Alite, Ferrite, aluminate, Si, S and some heavy metals in the residue. The effect of plasma treatment on activity of gram-negative Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria in water was also checked. The bacterial activity was reduced by almost 50% after 2 min of plasma treatment.
Argon gas plasma consists of discharge pattern of micro hollow cathode. The pattern is used to inactivate the two main kinds of bacteria. The Culture of Escherichia Coli (gram positive) and Staphylococcus aureus (gram negative) are subjected to the plasma exposure. The micro-plasma jet (MPJ) discharge was generated in the voltage range of 2-10 kV with an operating current of 20-35 mA. Under such conditions, a MPJ of approximately 1 cm visible length was produced. The power efficiency of this device was approximately 80%. The efficacy of MPJ to inactivate the bacteria is determined by observing colony forming unit (CFU) counts before and after plasma exposure. The Colony counter is used here to find the CFU/plate. The effect of plasma exposure is observed by varying the time at 15, 30, 60, 90, 120, 150 and 180 seconds. An efficient reduction in CFU is observed after plasma exposure, particularly for 120 seconds. Approximate 50% decay of both cultures is observed after treatment time of 120 seconds.
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