Mechanisms and toxicity of plasma-induced antibiotic degradation: advances in synergistic strategies and computational evaluation

The widespread use of antibiotics has raised environmental and health concerns, leading to the adoption of plasma technology for antibiotic degradation. This review, based on Google Scholar and Connected Papers, covers recent methods, including molecular dynamics simulations and machine learning models for predicting degradation performance. It discusses degradation pathways, such as cleavage reactions of rings and amino groups, and explores synergistic strategies that improve degradation rates, mineralization, and energy efficiency. Additionally, plasma-generated intermediates reduce toxicological impacts, enhancing microorganism survival, seed germination, cell viability, and aquatic organism health. The review highlights advancements, challenges, and future directions for plasma-based antibiotic degradation. Future studies should focus on further optimizing plasma efficiency and addressing current limitations regarding scalability and practical applications. The review also calls for more research into the long-term impacts of plasma treatment on environmental safety.