Another prestigious award for student Tomáš Čermák: 2nd prize in the INTENTIO (Sustainable Development) category awarded by Charles University as part of the „Česká hlavička“ contest

The work deals with the inhibition of Escherichia coli bacteria and the degradation of a wide range of organic pollutants using AC corona discharge in air. The goal was to design and test an inexpensive and energy-efficient low-temperature plasma device that would allow the above-mentioned problems to be studied in detail. AC corona discharge was investigated in the presence of water for the electrical properties and basic plasma parameters by various diagnostic techniques. The result of the work includes the determination of the energy efficiency of inactivation of E. coli by AC corona and the influence of individual mechanisms (temperature, UV, RONS, etc.) on the resulting antibacterial effect. Furthermore, the potential use of the setup for the degradation of more than 100 bioactive residues (e.g. ketamine, morphine or sertraline) in wastewater was tested.