A Review on the Antimicrobial Effects of Nanoparticles and Atmospheric Cold Plasma Technology

Increasing widespread resistance in all available antibiotics, as well as the risk of using other germicidal agents, leads research to search for additional and new antimicrobial methods. Recently cold plasma (CP) and nanoparticles are used for microbial disinfection, wound healing and cancer treatment. The purpose of this article is to review the antimicrobial properties, various methods of synthesis and stabilization of nanoparticles along with cold plasma technology. Atmospheric and how it affects the inactivation of pathogenic microorganisms in the food industry and clinical departments.

In the present review, articles published from 2011 to 2023 were used and scientific information databases such as Google Scholar, PubMed, ScienceDirect and Scopus have been used.

Bacteria can be deactivated by the effect of agents in cold plasma including reactive oxygen species (ROS) and nitrogen (RNS), UV radiation and charged particles. Among the effective species of ROS, ozone, superoxide, peroxide, etc., and among the species of RNS, atomic nitrogen, and excited nitrogen can be mentioned. Also, charged particles can be used directly and indirectly for antimicrobial purposes.

Cold plasma can be used to improve the health of food, destroy bacterial biofilms, destroy pathogenic microorganisms, inactivate spores, and also deactivate viruses. In spite of the mentioned effects of cold plasma and the low pollution after its processing, for its full acceptance, its environmental and human approaches should be considered along with its effectiveness.