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 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.