Degradation of cefixime antibiotic in water by atmospheric plasma bubbles: Performance, degradation pathways and toxicity evaluation

Excessive use and indiscriminate discharge of antibiotics inevitably lead to their accumulation in the environment, posing significant ecological physiological risks. Non-thermal plasma (NTP) is receiving increasing attention as a sustainable technology for efficient breakdown these well other contaminants. However, implementation NTP still faces several hurdles, particularly maximization reactive effects practical scaling approaches. In this study, we generated inside forming bubbles with enlarged gas-liquid interfacial areas delivery species target cefixime antibiotic molecules aqueous solution. The degradation was largely dependent on different number microholes, air flow rate, power, exposure time solution properties. Results show that high-performance achieved 10-microhole reactor an energy yield 1.5 g/kWh, after 30 min treatment. Based LC-MS analysis, NTP-initiated pathway proposed. Cytotoxicity studies demonstrated activity effectively wholly deactivated by process, no toxic min-treated water were observed toward human cell lines. Furthermore, considering employed inducer gas, which results formation nitrogen water, treated able enhance seedling growth, further contributing societal economic benefits plasma-based strategy.