Degradation of the Selected Pesticides by Gas Discharge Plasma

As increasing the use of pesticides both in number and amount to boost crop production, consumer concerns over food quality and safety with respect to residual pesticides are also continuously increasing. However, there is still lacking of information that can effectively help to remove residual pesticides in foods. In recent years, contaminant removal by gas (or) glow discharge plasma (GDP) attracts great interests on environmental scientists because of its high removal efficiency and environmental compatibility. It was shown to be effective for the removal of some organophosphorus pesticides, phenols, benzoic acid, dyes, and nitrobenzene on solid substrate or in aqueous solution. This work mainly focuses on the removal of wide range of residual pesticides from fresh fruits and vegetables. As for preliminary study, the experiments were carried out to investigate whether GDP can be used as an effective tool for degrading target pesticides or not. With this objective, 60 selected pesticides drop wised onto glass slides were exposed to two types of GDP, dielectric barrier discharge plasma (DBDP) and low pressure discharge plasma (LPDP), for 5 min. Then, they were washed with 2 mL MeCN which were collected and used for determination of remaining concentration of pesticides using LC-MS/MS. Among selected pesticides, degradation of 18 pesticides (endosulfan-total was counted as one pesticide) by GDP could not be examined because control treatments, which were left in ambient environment, of those pesticides recovered less than 70% or even did not recover. However, majority of tested pesticides (42) were degraded by both types of GDP with satisfactory recovery (>80%) of control sample. Pesticides degradation ranged from 66.88% to 100% were achieved by both types of plasma except clothianidin which degradation in LPDP was 26.9%. The results clearly indicate that both types of gas discharge plasma are promising tools for degrading wide range of pesticides on glass substrate.

기체플라즈마에 의한 농약분해특성 연구

식량증산을 위해 농약사용량이 증가함에 따라, 식품 중 잔류농약의 안전성 문제에 대한 관심은 날로 증가하고 있지만 효율적인 잔류농약 저감화 방법은 보급되지 못하고 있는 것이 현실이다. 최근에 기체 플라즈마에 의한 오염물질 제거는 고효율성과 환경친화성으로 많은 주목을 받고 있다. 특히 플라즈마는 수질 및 고체 표면 중 유기인계살충제, 페놀, 벤조산, 염료, 니트로벤젠과 같은 오염물질의 제거에 큰 효과가 있는 것으로 알려지고 있다. 본 연구는 플라즈마를 이용하여 농식품 중에 잔류되는 농약의 제거 가능성을 알아보고자 대기압 및 감압플라즈마 플라즈마 발생 상태에서 60종의 농약을 대상으로 분해양상을 파악해보고자 시도하였다. 시험용 농약을 유리판에 도포 후 대기압 및 감압 플라즈마 발생기에서 5분간 조사 후 잔류량을 확인 한 결과 대조구의 회수 분석결과가 70% 미만인 18종을 제외한 41종의 농약 분해율이 66.88-100%를 나타내었고, clothianidin은 감압플라즈마하에서 26.9%이 분해율을 보였다.