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

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 V. cholerae within 1 minute 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 (ROS) generation at the solid–liquid–air interface, thereby markedly enhancing disinfection rate and efficacy compared with existing contact electrification–based disinfection technologies. Owing to its ease of operation, ourinterfacial electric-field-enhanced (IEFE) disinfection system is readily deployable in disaster relief and resource-constrained regions. Overall design: This study aimed to investigate transcriptomic changes in Escherichia coli induced by interfacial electric-field-enhanced (IEFE) disinfection using SiO2@NF_Au nanostructures. Bacterial cultures were grown to mid-log phase and divided into two groups: untreated controls and samples subjected to IEFE treatment for 1 min. Each group contained three independent biological replicates. Total RNA was extracted from bacterial cells, and rRNA was removed prior to library preparation. Strand-specific RNA-seq libraries were constructed using a TruSeq Stranded Total RNA Library Prep Kit and sequenced on an Illumina platform. Comparative transcriptome analysis was performed to identify differentially expressed genes and associated biological pathways.