Plasma-activated water: a powerful tool against pesky biofilms

Plasma-activated water (PAW), produced by cold atmospheric plasma interacting with water, generates reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) with potent antimicrobial activity.While its efficacy against planktonic microorganisms has been well documented, its ability to disrupt biofilms, key drivers of infection, contamination and antimicrobial resistance (AMR), is only emerging.This short review highlights advances across medicine, food safety, surface decontamination and water treatment, with examples of how PAW enhances antiseptics, outperforms industry standard disinfectants and sanitisers, and can be used for water processing.Despite remaining gaps in standardisation, scalability, sustainability, and economics, PAW's tuneable chemistry positions it as a nextgeneration biofilm control strategy.With interdisciplinary collaboration, it could play a pivotal role in the global response to AMR.