Fig. 5. Inactivation of P. aeruginosa PAO1 using UVC-afterglow phosphor sheets.

a Confocal micrograph of the control sample exposed at ambient conditions. b–e Confocal micrographs of P. aeruginosa PAO1 undergoing different irradiation of UVC afterglow. Four phosphor sheets that were irradiated by X-ray for (b) 2 min, (c) 5 min, (d) 10 min, and (e) 16 min were used to inactivate P. aeruginosa PAO1. The live and dead cells show green and red colors, respectively. f The dependence of P. aeruginosa PAO1 survival ratios on the X-ray irradiation time of the given phosphor sheets. 100% viability can be maintained when keeping P. aeruginosa PAO1 under ambient conditions. The error bars represent the standard error and are obtained based on three independent experiments