The purpose of this project was to quantify and investigate the mechanisms used to degrade perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), an emerging contaminant, through exposure to a pin to water discharge cold-atmospheric pressure (CAP) plasma jet. PFOA was commonly used in man-made products for commercial, industrial, and firefighting purposes, which had led to widespread contamination of groundwater and drinking water. CAP was an emerging technology undergoing intense research to understand what reactive species it produced and how it can be used as an effective system for water treatment. A 20 micromolar solution of PFOA was exposed to plasma ignited in both air and argon gasses at a wattage of 10 ± 1 W. Under these conditions, a substantial amount of PFOA degradation occurred with argon and air plasma treatments in positive polarity. PFOA was seen to degrade an average of 54.57% when using an argon gas feed, and 50.00% when using an air gas feed after 40 minutes of treatment. These results supported argon plasma as a better conductor for the removal of PFOA from contaminated water as argon plasma is seen to degrade PFOA more effectively after 40 minutes of treatment. Additionally, CAP does not require expensive or wasteful resources, and does not generate harmful by-products. This project demonstrates that CAP is a promising green alternative to current water treatment processes in use.

Water treatment by cold atmospheric plasma (CAP)

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