2. Academic Validation
  3. Hand-powered interfacial electric-field-enhanced water disinfection system

Hand-powered interfacial electric-field-enhanced water disinfection system

  • Nat Nanotechnol. 2025 Oct 15. doi: 10.1038/s41565-025-02033-9.
Zhidi Chen # 1 2,  Yajing Zhang # 3,  Panjing Lv # 4,  Tongwei Wu 1,  Jianing He 1,  Jinyan Du 1,  Qiangqiang Sun 5,  Qianbao Wu 1,  Jinlong Yang 1,  Yiming Zhang 1,  Yanning Zhang 1,  Fei He 6,  Chunhua Cui 1,  Gonghua Hong 3,  Hongyu Zhu 7,  Yan Li 8,  Junling Guo 9,  Xu Deng 10 11
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
  • 2 Guangdong Key Laboratory of Durability in Coastal Civil Engineering, College of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China.
  • 3 BMI Center for Biomass Materials and Nanointerfaces, National Engineering Laboratory for Clean Technology of Leather Manufacture, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Leather Chemistry and Engineering, College of Biomass Science and Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
  • 4 Department of Pathogen Biology, School of Basic Medicine, Tongji Medical College and State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Severe Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
  • 5 Key Laboratory of Advanced Technologies of Materials, Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China.
  • 6 Hubei Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Wuhan, China.
  • 7 Analysis and Testing Center, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
  • 8 Department of Pathogen Biology, School of Basic Medicine, Tongji Medical College and State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Severe Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China. yanli@hust.edu.cn.
  • 9 BMI Center for Biomass Materials and Nanointerfaces, National Engineering Laboratory for Clean Technology of Leather Manufacture, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Leather Chemistry and Engineering, College of Biomass Science and Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China. junling.guo@scu.edu.cn.
  • 10 Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China. dengxu@uestc.edu.cn.
  • 11 Shenzhen Institute for Advanced Study, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Shenzhen, China. dengxu@uestc.edu.cn.
  • # Contributed equally.
PMID: 41094262 DOI: 10.1038/s41565-025-02033-9
Abstract

Mechanical-energy-driven portable water disinfection has attracted attention for its electricity-free operation, but this approach generally faces bottlenecks such as a high mechanical activation threshold, energy dispersion and low interfacial reaction efficiency, making it difficult to achieve rapid and stable pathogen inactivation in practical scenarios. Here we report a manually operated portable water disinfection system that can inactivate 99.9999% of Vibrio cholerae within 1 min and demonstrate broad-spectrum disinfection against bacteria, fungi, parasites and viruses. Amino-modified SiO2 nanoparticles loaded with Au nanoparticles capture hydrated electrons and transfer them to the electret surface to generate localized nanoscale electric fields, which are further strengthened by hydrophobic fluorinated groups. This interfacial architecture not only promotes charge accumulation and transfer, but also leverages the intensified electric field to actively drive Reactive Oxygen Species generation at the solid-liquid-air interface, thereby markedly enhancing the disinfection rate and efficacy compared with existing contact-electrification-based disinfection technologies. Owing to its ease of operation, our interfacial electric-field-enhanced disinfection system is readily deployable in disaster relief and resource-constrained regions.

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