Water in low-temperature atmospheric-pressure plasmas

pressure plasmas has received growing attention in recent years for the potential use of these plasmas in biomedical applications, air treatment and chemical synthesis. As oxygen, H2O is a good precursor of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the two can be combined to create cocktails of ROS (O, OH, O3, 1O2, OOH and H2O2) of different compositions. These plasmas tend to be electronegative and display interesting dynamics, particularly when created in small gaps. From a practical point of view, it is important to understand the chemical pathways leading to the production of the biologically relevant ROS, as this will provide guidelines for the optimization of the plasma sources for a particular application.