Plasma Technology: A New Remediation for Water Purification with or without Nanoparticles

One of the most serious problems facing billions of people today is the availability of fresh water. The conventional water recycling methods like chemical oxidation processes and advanced oxidation processes (AOP) are eff ective but have problems such as high cost, secondary pollution and production of chlorinated species. To overcome these problems nanoparticles are increasingly used. The conventional methods of nanoparticle production usually requires a long time and have a high cost, which render them ineff ective for large-scale production of nanoparticles. Nanoparticle production using the plasma technique overcomes these shortcomings. Additionally, the plasma itself acts as a perfect method for water purification due to the formation of various reactive chemical species such as radicals (OH·, H·, O·, HO₂·) and molecular species (H₂O₂, H₂, O₂). Hence, the use of the combined action of nanoparticles and plasma is a new method for solving water treatment problems.