Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) acts as a powerful antibacterial tool in the food industry, effectively eliminating E. coli and a wide range of pathogens, including bacteria, viruses, fungi, spores, and biofilms in meat and vegetables. Unlike traditional bactericidal methods, CAP leverages an arsenal of reactive species, including reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as ozone (O3) and hydroxyl radicals (OH•), and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) like nitric oxide (NO•), alongside UV radiation and charged particles. These agents synergistically dismantle E. coli’s cell membranes, proteins, and DNA, achieving high degradation rates without thermal or chemical damage to processed food. This non-thermal, eco-friendly technology preserves food’s nutritional and sensory integrity, offering a transformative edge over conventional approaches. It emphasizes the critical need to optimize treatment parameters (exposure time, gas composition, power) to unlock CAP’s full potential. This review explores CAP’s effectiveness in degrading E. coli, emphasizing the optimization of treatment parameters for practical food industry applications and its potential as a scalable food safety solution. It is crucial to conduct further studies to enhance its implementation, establishing CAP as a fundamental element of advanced food processing technologies and a key measure for protecting public health.

This research focuses on the computational analysis and numerical investigation of BrCl ion density within an HBr-Cl$_2$ capacitively coupled plasma system. A two-dimensional fluid simulation model was developed to examine the influence of varying the HBr: Cl$_2$ gas ratio on BrCl ion formation. The simulation framework incorporates fundamental plasma fluid equations, including the continuity equation, momentum conservation equations, and energy conservation equations, along with appropriate boundary conditions. The investigation specifically explored gas composition variations ranging from 10% Cl$_2$ and 90% HBr to 90% Cl$_2$ and 10% HBr, incremented in 20% steps. The radio frequency (RF) driving frequency was fixed at 13.56 MHz throughout the simulations. Results revealed a non-monotonic dependence of BrCl$^+$ ion density on the Cl$_2$ concentration; a mixture of 30% Cl$_2$ and 70% HBr yielded the highest BrCl$^+$ ion density, beyond which further increases in Cl$_2$ content suppressed BrCl$^+$ production due to depletion of the HBr precursor. Notably, elevated BrCl$^+$ ion densities were observed near the electrode edges and at the electrode center. The generated two-dimensional and three-dimensional simulation data offer foundational insights for practical industrial applications, particularly in advanced semiconductor etching and deposition technologies.

This work investigates the formation and dynamics of electrostatic freak waves in pair-ion (PI) and pair-ion--electron (PIE) plasmas. The analysis begins with the derivation of the Korteweg--de Vries (KdV) equations for both plasma configurations, from which the corresponding nonlinear and dispersive coefficients are obtained. By employing the wave superposition principle, the KdV equations are systematically reduced to the nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE), enabling the exploration of modulation instability and rogue wave generation. Analytical solutions of the NLSE are utilized to construct parametric plots that elucidate the evolution of freak waves in PI and PIE plasmas. Comparative analysis reveals pronounced differences in the amplitude, localization, and structural properties of the freak waves in the two plasma environments, highlighting the critical role of electron contributions in shaping nonlinear wave phenomena.