Millimeter-sized Cs4PbBr6 bulk single crystal that has no green luminescence was successfully grown from concentrated CsBr aqueous solution for the first time. Absorption spectrum indicates an optical absorption starting from 3.6 eV and a localized absorption in the range of 3.8–4.2 eV. Photoluminescence spectrum clearly shows that the crystal has no green emission. Along with the calculated electronic band structure, it is concluded that Cs4PbBr6 has a wide bandgap of 3.6 eV. Through vacuum annealing treatment, the green luminescence of the original nongreen-luminescent Cs4PbBr6 crystal was successfully activated, which is possibly due to the formation of CsPbBr3. This work gives the method to obtain millimeter-sized Cs4PbBr6 crystals from aqueous solution and suggests a route to activate its green luminescence. The results are significant for the deep understanding of the intrinsic properties and exploring the potential applications of wide bandgap Cs4PbBr6.

Non-thermal atmospheric plasma (NTP) has shown its selective anticancer effects in many types of tumors in vitro and one of the main mechanisms is that the different increase of intracellular ROS in cancer and homologous normal cells. In this study, we report that NTP treatment reduces the proliferation in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) and normal cell lines. Simultaneously, STAT3 pathway is inhibited by NTP effects. However, it is observed that normal cells MCF10A are more sensitive to ROS toxicity induced by NTP than cancer cells MDA-MB-231. When 5 mM of ROS inhibitor N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) is employed in NTP treatments, the proliferation of normal breast cells MCF10A recovers. Meanwhile, NTP effects remain significant inhibition of MDA-MB-231 cells. Our results further reveal that NTP can induce apoptosis in MDA-MB-231 cells through inhibiting interleukin-6 receptor (IL-6R) pathway. Moreover, the mechanism of NTP anti-cancer selectivity relates to constantly HER2/Akt activation induced by NTP especially in MCF10A cells but not in MDA-MB-231 cells. Therefore, these two different cell signaling pathways induced by NTP treatments in TNBC and homologous normal cells make NTP becoming a potential tool in future therapy.

Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) has been widely used in biomedicine during the last two decades. While direct plasma treatment has been reported to promote wound healing, its application can be uneven and inconvenient. In this study, we first activated water with a portable dielectric barrier discharge plasma device and evaluated the inactivation effect of plasma-activated water (PAW) on several kinds of bacteria that commonly infect wounds. The results show that PAW can effectively inactivate these bacteria. Then, we activated tap water and examined the efficacy of PAW on wound healing in a mouse model of full-thickness skin wounds. We found that wound healing in mice treated with PAW was significantly faster compared with the control group. Histological analysis of the skin tissue of mice wounds showed a significant reduction in the number of inflammatory cells in the PAW treatment group. To identify the possible mechanism by which PAW promotes wound healing, we analyzed changes in the profiles of wound bacteria after PAW treatment. The results show that PAW can significantly reduce the abundance of wound bacteria in the treatment group. The results of biochemical blood tests and histological analysis of major internal organs in the mice show that PAW had no obvious side effects. Taken together, these results indicate that PAW may be a new and effective method for promoting wound healing without side effects.

Non‐thermal plasma (NTP) can induce cancer cell death which is supposed to be mediated by oxidative stress. In this work, the contribution of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in NTP induced lung cancer cell damage is quantitatively studied. Our results also show signification production of H2O2 in plasma activated medium (PAM). NTP treatment induce critical raising of cell death, apoptosis, and DNA double‐strand breaks (DSBs) in A549 cell. NTP treatment also cause mitochondrial dysfunction and intracellular ROS production in A549 cells. Furthermore, catalase efficiently protect cells from NTP induced A549 cell damage. This work clarified the contribution of H2O2 to plasma induced cancer cell damage.

Although plasma sterilization has attracted much attention, the underlying mechanisms and biochemical pathways are still not fully understood.