Examining plasma-generated ozone and nitric oxide's role in synthetic textile dye water remediation and ecotoxicological analysis

Synthetic dyes produced by the textile dyeing industry and released into wastewater contribute significantly to water pollution. This study explores the efficacy and versatility of a novel multi-electrode dielectric barrier discharge (MEDBD) plasma system that mainly generates ozone (O3 generator) and nitric oxide (NO generator) selectively to degrade various synthetic textile dyes, namely Methylene Blue (MB), Congo Red (CR), Methyl Orange (MO), Crystal Violet (CV), and Evans Blue (EB). Plasma achieved selective enrichment of O3 and NO by utilizing optimized plasma generation duty cycles of 15% and 100%, respectively. The proposed O3 generator plasma involves plasma-generated aqua electron impact, excited species, and reactive oxygen species notably O3, which degrades synthetic textile dyes into simple forms such as CO2, H2O, and N2. This approach achieved over 95% degradation of the above synthetic textile dyes when employing the O3 enriched plasma with 2.44 ± 0.21 W of power. Ecotoxicological evaluation, including microbial, human cell, and phytotoxicity evaluations of the O3 generator plasma for MB and CR dye-contaminated water, underscored the potential of this plasma system for environmentally friendly dye degradation. Overall, this study promotes MEDBD plasma, particularly the O3 generator, as a sustainable and efficient solution for treating synthetic dye-contaminated water across industries. [Display omitted] •MEDBD plasma centrally produces selective O₃ and NO from ambient air.•Optimization of duty cycles in plasma system enables the efficient production of NO and O3 species.•Plasma generated O3 effectively degrades MB and CR dyes at 2.44 ± 0.21 W of discharge power.•MEDBD plasma offers versatile treatment for a wide range of industrial dye-polluted water.•Plasma-treated synthetic textile dye-polluted water is biocompatible.