:
In their search for an alternative to commercial adsorbents, much research is turned to the local biomass-based materials such as agricultural residues and assimilated derivatives. However, natural biomass due to
its low specific surface area must first undergo several pre-treatments. Among the newly emerging electric techniques for environmental applications, those who operate at atmospheric pressure (Non-thermal plasma) have recently found
many breakthrough applications arising from their easy use with no extra additional reagents and their high reactivity. The
Non-thermal plasma treatment of biomass is one of the promising developed approaches mainly due to significant effects
including the formation of micro and macrospores, the increase of surface roughness, and surface functionalization. The
most used plasma is non-thermal, so as not to denature the biomass, likewise the hot plasma can burn and/or destroy high contains carbon biomaterials. Especially, the gliding arc plasma obtained using moisten air as feeding gas,
which is known to induce acidifying and oxidizing effects in an aqueous target. The primary species HO•
radicals [E°
(HO•
/H2O) = 2.85 V/SHE] mainly formed in the arc will be with the dimer H2O2 [E°(H2O2/H2O) = 1.76 V/SHE] the determining agents for the chemical reactions induced. Exposure of a target to this kind of environment is likely to promote great surface transformations. This approach has some advantages: (i) the merit of not using commercial
chemical reagents, the reactive species being in-situ generated; (ii) the risks related to the manipulation of the
products, the plasma reactor is robust and can be modulated to treat large quantity; (iii) the efficiency of the bifunctionality of the plasma (acidifier and oxidative). In this review, we will spotlight the main changes induced
by exposure of biomass to plasma treatment and also make a comparative study between chemically and plasma-activated materials in the removal of various pollutants from aqueous solution; and finally we summarize the
findings in the existing literature.
Inactivation of airborne viruses using a packed bed non-thermal plasma reactor
