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In this study, we have demonstrates that nitrogen-plasma-treated g-C3N4 nanosheet exhibits excellent and broad-spectrum antibacterial activity against eight foodborne pathogens in the absence of light illumination.

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Artemisinin has excellent antimalarial, antiparasitic, and antibacterial activities; however, the poor water solubility of artemisinin crystal limits their application in antibiosis. Herein, artemisinin crystal was first composited with silica nanoparticles (SNPs) to form an artemisinin@silica nanoparticle (A@SNP). After treating with nitrogen plasma, the aqueous solubility of plasma-treated A@SNP (A@SNP-p) approaches 42.26%, which is possibly attributed to the exposure of hydrophilic groups such as −OH groups on the SNPs during the plasma process. Compared with the pristine A@SNP, the antibacterial activity of A@SNP-p against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative strains is further enhanced, and its bactericidal rate against both strains exceeded 6 log CFU/mL (>99.9999%), which is contributed by the increased water solubility of the A@SNP-p. A possible multipathway antibacterial mechanism of A@SNP was proposed and preliminarily proved by the changes of intracellular materials of bacteria and the inhibition of bacterial metabolism processes, including the HMP pathway in Gram-negative strain and EMP pathway in Gram-positive strain, after treating with A@SNP-p. These findings from the present work will provide a new view for fabricating artemisinin-based materials as antibiotics.

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Photocatalytic degradation is an effective strategy to reduce food safety risks caused by the residual organophosphorus pesticide omethoate in fruits and vegetables. In order to avoid secondary pollution of photocatalysts and reduce costs, in this paper, visible light-driven photocatalytic active composite nanofibers were successfully synthesized by loading nonthermal nitrogen plasma-treated graphite carbon nitride (g-C 3 N 4 ) onto poly(ethylene oxide) nanofibers. When the carbon nitride loading amount was 0.5%, the photodegradation rate of omethoate by nanofibers was the highest. Although the treatment of high-power nonthermal nitrogen plasma does not significantly affect the chemical structure of g-C 3 N 4 , it can change the abundance of its surface reactive sites. This modification significantly improved the photocatalytic activity of g-C 3 N 4 , increasing the photocurrent intensity by more than 90% and increasing the photodegradation rate of omethoate by more than 100%. Possible photocatalytic mechanisms have also been discussed. This work can further enhance the application potential of g-C 3 N 4 in the field of pesticide photocatalytic degradation.

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