Plasma jet decontamination of sulfur mustard and its analogues in water by oxidation effect

Abstract

Atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ), as an emerging clean and efficient technology, has been found a great potential for chemical warfare agents (CWAs) decontamination. In this study, we first proposed APPJ for the degradation of sulfur mustard (HD) and its surrogate 2-chloroethyl ethyl sulfide (2-CEES) in water. Under optimal conditions, the degradation efficiency of 2-CEES and HD reached 100 % after 5 min or 6 min plasma treatment. The degradation products of 2-CEES and HD were mainly non-toxic alcohols or low toxic sulfones, which can be degraded and converted into some small molecules (HCl, SO2, or CO2) under further plasma treatment. We then identified two dominant short-lived reactive species (·OH and 1O2) and long-lived reactive molecule (H2O2) and distinguished the effect of these three active particles during the degradation process of 2-CEES in water. This work provides detailed evidence of a novel decontamination strategy for HD and 2-CEES.