Abstract
Besides many efforts on the detection and quantification of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONSs) in the aqueous media activated by the cold atmospheric plasma, to get a better insight into the dominant mechanism and reactive species in medical applications, a challenge still remains in monitoring the real-time evaluation of them. To this end, in the present work, relying on the photonic technology based on the time-resolved phosphorescence spectroscopy, real-time tracking of RONSs concentration in treated aqueous media has been achieved by following the dissolved oxygen (DO) production/consumption. Using a photonic-based dissolved oxygen sensor, the dependence of real-time RONS concentration evaluation of plasma activated medium on plasma nozzle distance, non-thermal plasma jet exposure time, various culture media, and presence of cells has been investigated. Analyzing the results, the activation parameters including the time of reaching maximum RONS concentration after treatment and defined activation parameter \(\epsilon\) of the treated media for each case have been measured and compared together. Moreover, employing the scavengers related to two involved ROSs, the dominant chemical reactions as well as ROS contributed in the DMEM medium have been determined. As a promising result, the obtained correlation between the real-time DO level and viability and toxicity of the cancer cells, MCF-7 breast cancer cells, could enable us to exploit the present photonic setup as an alternative technique for the biological assessment.