Nonthermal plasma processing catalyzed by CuFe2O4 for organic pollutants remediation and bacterial inactivation with density functional theory.

The suggested nonthermal plasma has been employed for organic pollutants remediation and bacterial inactivation with catalyst (CuFe2O4) via reactive oxygen and nitrogen species, along with catalytic density functional theory processing. The plasma generated species O2- (g.), OH• (g.), H2O2 (aq.), and NOx (aq.) are used for the remediation of organic pollutants, such as reactive black5 and bromocresol green with catalytic oxidative and reductive transformation, like as from Fe2+ (aq.) to Fe3+ (aq.) and from Cu2+ (aq.) to Cu1+ (aq.), respectively. In the presence of plasma with CuFe2O4, the pollutants remediation enhanced more, which is 95 ± 0.78%, rather than only plasma. After removal of pollutants, the plasma processing catalyzed by CuFe2O4 was highly inactivated the E. coli. bacterial growth, which inhibition rate is 100 ± 0.87% and 100 ± 0.69% for reactive black5 and bromocresol green, rather than only plasma, such as 86.41 ± 0.91% and 73.91 ± 0.56%, respectively. The CuFe2O4 generated super oxides (O2- (aq.)) and hydroxides (H+(aq.), OH⦁(aq.), and OOH⦁(aq.)) are rapidly react with bacteria to damage the bacterial cell membrane via catalytic redox process. However, the plasma generated species were react with catalyst to produce the e- charge densities under the redox transformation of spin orientation (±) 0.58 e-, which is 0.007, 0.009, and 0.005 electrons per cubic Angstrom, for CuFe2O4, H2O2(aq.), and NOx(aq.). The plasma generated species concentrations were quantified in the deionized water, which are H2O2(aq.) (145 ± 0.91 µM) and NOx(aq.) (112 ± 0.56 µM), respectively. After eradication of pollutants, the water pH was observed, which is near to the neutral at 6.57 ± 0.27 under the catalytic binary redox process. Moreover, the catalytic stability examined via reusability test, which were four cycles for reactive black5 and three cycles for bromocresol green. Furthermore, the CuFe2O4 nanoparticles conducted several characterizations to analyze the various properties, such as crystal, surface, functional, and elemental.