Efficient Prevention of Spores Spread in Air Using Plasmonic Ag-AgCl/α-FeO under Visible Light Irradiation.

is a kind of widespread fungi that can produce carcinogenic, teratogenic, and mutagenic secondary metabolites known as aflatoxins. mainly spread through the means of fungal spores in air, thus preventing the spores spread is an effective strategy to control aflatoxins contamination from source. Herein, a rapid and efficient control way to prevent the spread of spores in air was demonstrated. Ag-AgCl nanoparticles were combined with tetrahedral α-FeO to form plasmonic composites that presented 93.65 ± 1.53% prevention rate of spores under 50 min visible light irradiation. The efficient activity was attributed to the synergy effect of Ag including intrinsic disinfection, electron sink, and localized surface plasmon resonance effect, which were proven by photoelectric characterization, density functional theory, and finite difference time domain methods. The calculated work functions of α-FeO, Ag, and AgCl were 3.71, 4.52, and 5.38 eV, respectively, which could accelerate photoinduced carrier transfer through Ag during photoreaction. Moreover, it was found that the intrinsic disinfection of Ag and hydroxyl radical from photocatalytic reaction were the main factors to the prevention of spores, which resulted in the destruction of spore structure and the leakage of intracellular protein with 62.15 ± 2.63 μg mL. Most important, it was proven that the composites also showed high activity (90.52 ± 1.26%) to prevent spore spread in the storage process of peanuts. These findings not only provided useful information for an efficient and potential strategy to prevent contamination but also could be as a reference in toxic fungi control.