Characteristics of a Normal Glow Discharge Excited by DC Voltage in Atmospheric Pressure Air

Atmospheric pressure glow discharges were generated in an air gap between a needle cathode and a water anode. Through changing the ballast resistor and gas gap width between the electrodes, it has been found that the discharges are in normal glow regime judged from the currentvoltage characteristics and visualization of the discharges. Results indicate that the diameter of the positive column increases with increasing discharge current or increasing gap width. Optical emission spectroscopy is used to calculate the electron temperature and vibrational temperature. Both the electron temperature and the vibrational temperature increases with increasing discharge current or increasing gap width. Spatially resolved measurements show that the maxima of electron temperature and vibrational temperature appeared in the vicinity of the needle cathode.     

Evaluation on a double-chamber gas-liquid phase discharge reactor for benzene degradation

A double-chamber gas-liquid phase DBD reactor (GLDR), consisting of a gas-phase discharge chamber and a gas-liquid discharge chamber in series, was designed to enhance the degradation of benzene and the emission of NOx. The performance of the GLDR on discharge characteristics, reactive species production and benzene degradation was compared to that of the single-chamber gas phase DBD reactor (GPDR). The effects of discharge gap, applied voltage, initial benzene concentration, gas flow rate and solution conductivity on the degradation and energy yield of benzene in the GLDR were investigated. The GLDR presents a higher discharge power, higher benzene degradation and higher energy yield than that of the GPDR. NO₂ emission was remarkably inhibited in the GLDR, possibly due to the dissolution of NO₂ in water. The benzene degradation efficiency increased with the applied voltage, but decreased with the initial concentration, gas flow rate, and gas discharge gap, while the solution conductivity presented less influence on benzene degradation. The benzene degradation efficiency and the energy yield reached 61.11% and 1.45 g kWh^–1 at 4 mm total gas discharge gap, 15 kV applied voltage, 200 ppm benzene concentration, 0.2 L min⁻¹ gas flow rate and 721 μS cm⁻¹ water conductivity. The intermediates and byproducts during benzene degradation were detected by FT-IR, GC-MS and LC-MS primarily, and phenols, CO_x, and other aromatic substitutes, O₃, NO_x, etc, were determined as the main intermediates. According to these detected byproducts, a possible benzene degradation mechanism was proposed.     

Degradation of Microcystin-LR by Gas-Liquid Interfacial Discharge Plasma

In this study, we report on the degradation of microcystin-LR （MC-LR） by gas- liquid interracial discharge plasma. The influences of operation parameters such as average input voltage, electrode distance and gas flow rate are investigated. Experimental results indicate that the input voltage and gas flow rate have positive influences on MC-LR degradation, while the electrode distance has a negative one. After 6 min discharge with 25 kV average input voltage and 60 L/h air aerati by discharge both in on, the degradation rate of MC-LR achieves 75.3%. distilled water and MC-LR solution are measured H202 and 03 generated Moreover, an emission spectroscopy is used as an indicator of the processes that take place on the gas-liquid boundary and inside plasma. Varied types of radicals （O, .OH, CO, 03, etc.） are proved to be present in the gas phase during gas-liquid interfacial discharge.     

Measurement of the first Townsend's ionization coefficient for atmospheric pressure neon by a dielectric barrier discharge

Fast photography and optical emission spectroscopy are implemented in a 5 mm neon gap dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) at atmospheric pressure with quartz glass used as the dielectric layer. Results show that it starts with a Townsend discharge and ends at a sub-normal glow discharge in neon DBD. Based on the Townsend discharge, the first ionization coefficient of neon is measured. The measurements are consistent with those at low pressure. Optical emission spectroscopy indicates that the spectra are mainly composed of atomic lines of neon, molecular bands and molecular ion bands originating from inevitable gas impurities (mainly nitrogen). Moreover, spectral lines emitted from atomic neon corresponding to the transitions (2p⁵ 3p → 2p⁵ 3s) are predominant. Although the second positive system of N₂(C³Π_u → B³Π_g) is observed, their intensities are too weak compared with neon's spectrum. The molecular nitrogen ion line of 391.4 nm is observed. It reveals that Penning ionization between high energy neon excited states and the inevitable gas impurities plays an important role in the value of the α coefficient.     

Spectroscopic study of bipolar nanosecond pulse gas-liquid discharge in atmospheric argon

Atmospheric gas-liquid discharge with argon as a working gas is presented by employed nanosecond pulse power. The discharge is presented in a glow-like mode. The discharge powers are determined to be less than 1 W, and remains almost constant when the discharge duration time increases. Bountiful active species are determined by capturing optical emission spectra,and their main generation processes are also discussed. The plasma gas temperature is calculated as 350 K by comparing the experimental spectra and the simulated ones of N_2(C~3Ⅱ_g→B~3Ⅱ_g, Δv =-2). The time resolved vibrational and rotational temperature is researched to present the stability of discharge when pulse voltage and discharge duration vary.The electron density is determined to be 10~(16) cm~(-3) according to the Stark broadening effect of the H_α line.     

Three modes of a direct-current plasma jet operated underwater to degrade methylene blue

A direct-current air plasma jet operated underwater presents three stable modes including an intermittently-pulsed discharge, a periodically-pulsed discharge and a continuous discharge with increasing the power voltage. The three discharge modes have different appearances for the plasma plumes. Moreover, gap voltage-current characteristics indicate that the continuous discharge is in a normal glow regime. Spectral lines from reactive species(OH, N_2, N_2~+, H_α,and O) have been revealed in the emission spectrum of the plasma jet operated underwater.Spectral intensities emitted from OH radical and oxygen atom increase with increasing the power voltage or the gas flow rate, indicating that reactive species are abundant. These reactive species cause the degradation of the methylene blue dye in solution. Effects of the experimental parameters such as the power voltage, the gas flow rate and the treatment time are investigated on the degradation efficiency. Results indicate that the degradation efficiency increases with increasing the power voltage, the gas flow rate or the treatment time. Compared with degradation in the intermittently-pulsed mode or the periodically-pulsed one, it is more efficient in the continuous mode, reaching 98% after 21 min treatment.     

Influence of the Gas Mixture Ratio on the Correlations Between the Excimer XeCl Emission and the Sealed Gas Temperature in DIelectric Barrier Discharge Lamps

For dielectric barrier discharge lamps filled with various gas mixture ratios,the correlations between the excimer XeCl emission and the sealed gas temperature have been founded,and a qualitative explication is presented.For gas mixture with chlorine larger than 3%,the emission intensity increases with the sealed gas temperature,while with chlorine about 2%,the emission intensity decreases with the increase in the gas temperature,and could be improved by cooling water .However,if chlorine is less than 1.5% ,the discharge appears to be a mixture mode with filaments distributed in a diffused glow-like discharge,and the UV emission is independent on the gas temperature.     

Investigation on discharge characteristics of a coaxial dielectric barrier discharge reactor driven by AC and ns power sources

A coaxial dielectric barrier discharge(DBD) reactor with double layer dielectric barriers has been developed for exhaust gas treatment and excited either by AC power or nanosecond(ns)pulse to generate atmospheric pressure plasma. The comparative study on the discharge characteristics of the discharge uniformity, power deposition, energy efficiency, and operation temperature between AC and ns pulsed coaxial DBD is carried out in terms of optical and electrical characteristics and operation temperature for optimizing the coaxial DBD reactor performance. The voltages across the air gap and dielectric layer and the conduction and displacement currents are extracted from the applied voltages and measured currents of AC and ns pulsed coaxial DBDs for the calculation of the power depositions and energy efficiencies through an equivalent electrical model. The discharge uniformity and operating temperature of the coaxial DBD reactor are monitored and analyzed by optical images and infrared camera. A heat conduction model is used to calculate the temperature of the internal quartz tube. It is found that the ns pulsed coaxial DBD has a much higher instantaneous power deposition in plasma, a lower total power consumption, and a higher energy efficiency compared with that excited by AC power and is more homogeneous and stable. The temperature of the outside wall of the AC and ns pulse excited coaxial DBD reaches 158 ℃ and 64.3 ℃ after 900 s operation, respectively.The experimental results on the comparison of the discharge characteristics of coaxial DBDs excited by different powers are significant for understanding of the mechanism of DBDs,reducing energy loss, and optimizing the performance of coaxial DBD in industrial applications.     

Atmospheric air dielectric barrier discharge excited by nanosecond pulse and AC used for improving the hydrophilicity of aramid fibers

In this paper, a long line-shape dielectric barrier discharge excited by a nanosecond pulse and AC is generated in atmospheric air for the purpose of discussing the uniformity, stability and ability of aramid fiber treatment. The discharge images, waveforms of current and voltage,optical emission spectra, and gas temperatures of both discharges are compared. It is found that nanosecond pulsed discharge has a more uniform discharge morphology, higher energy efficiency and lower gas temperature, which indicates that nanosecond pulsed discharge is more suitable for surface modification. To reduce the water contact angle from 96° to about 60°, the energy cost is only about 1/7 compared with AC discharge. Scanning electron microscopy,Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy are employed to understand the mechanisms of hydrophilicity improvement.     

Nonequilibrium Atmospheric Pressure Ar/O2 Plasma Jet: Properties and Application to Surface Cleaning

In this study an atmospheric pressure Ar/O_2 plasma jet is generated to study the effects of applied voltage and gas flux rate to the behavior of discharge and the metal surface cleaning.The increase in applied voltage leads to increases of the root mean square(rms) current,the input power and the gas temperature.Furthermore,the optical emission spectra show that the emission intensities of metastable argon and atomic oxygen increase with increasing applied voltage.However,the increase in gas flux rate leads to a reduction of the rms current,the input power and the gas temperature.Furthermore,the emission intensities of metastable argon and atomic oxygen decrease when gas flux rate increases.Contact angles are measured to estimate the cleaning performance,and the results show that the increase of applied voltage can improve the cleaning performance.Nevertheless,the increase of gas flux rate cannot improve the cleaning performance.Contact angles are compared for different input powers and gas flux rates to search for a better understanding of the major mechanism for surface cleaning by plasma jets.     

Preliminary Study of a Hybrid Helicon-ECR Plasma Source

A new type of hybrid discharge is experimentally investigated in this work. A helicon source and an electron cyclotron resonance(ECR) source were combined to produce plasma. As a preliminary study of this type of plasma, the optical emission spectroscopy(OES) method was used to obtain values of electron temperature and density under a series of typical conditions. Generally,it was observed that the electron temperature decreases and the electron density increases as the pressure increased. When increasing the applied power at a certain pressure, the average electron density at certain positions in the discharge does not increase significantly possibly due to the high degree of neutral depletion. Electron temperature increased with power in the hybrid mode.Possible mechanisms of these preliminary observations are discussed.     

Electrical and optical characteristics of atmospheric helium jet array plasma

In this paper, a honeycomb structure jet array with seven jet units was adopted to generate plasmas. Both the average discharge power and the emission intensity of the main excited species increase with increasing applied voltage. There are three stages of discharge evolution at different applied voltages: initial discharge, uniform discharge and strong coupling discharge.The spatial distribution of the emission intensity of the excited species can be divided into three categories: growth class, weakening class and variation class. The gas temperature along the whole plasma plume at different applied voltages is maintained at around 320K and can be widely used in heat-labile applications.     

Volume added surface barrier discharge plasma excited by bipolar nanosecond pulse power in atmospheric air: optical emission spectra influenced by gap distance

In this paper, volume barrier discharge with different gap distances is added on the discharge border of high-voltage electrode of annular surface barrier discharge for generating volume added surface barrier discharge (V-SBD) excited by bipolar nanosecond high-voltage pulse power in atmospheric air. The excited V-SBDs consist of surface barrier discharge (d=0 mm) and volume added surface barrier discharges (d=2 mm and 3 mm). The optical emission spectra are recorded for calculating emission intensities of N₂ (C ³Ⅱ_u →B³Π_g ) and N₂⁺ (B ²Σ_u⁺ → X ²Σ_g⁺ ), and simulating rotational and vibrational temperatures. The influences of gap distance of V-SBD on emission intensity and plasma temperature are also investigated and analyzed. The results show that d=0 mm structure can excite the largest emission intensity of N ₂ (C ³ Π_u →B ³Π_g ), while the existence of volume barrier discharge can delay the occurrence of the peak value of the emission intensity ratio of N₂⁺ (B ²Σ_u⁺ → X ²Σ_g⁺ )/N ₂(C³Π_u →B³Π_g ) during the rising period of the applied voltage pulse and weaken it during the end period. The increasing factor of emission intensity is effected by the pulse repetition rate. The d=3 mm structure has the highest threshold voltage while it can maintain more emission intensity of N₂(C³ Π _u →B ³Π_g ) than that of d=2 mm structure. The structure of d=2 mm can maintain more increasing factor than that of the d=3 mm structure with varying pulse repetition rate. Besides, the rotational temperatures of three V-SBD structures are slightly affected when the gap distance and pulse repetition rate vary. The vibrational temperatures have decaying tendencies of all three structures with the increasing pulse repetition rate.     

Excited Electron Temperature and Molecular Vibration Temperature During Transition from Filamentary Discharge to Glow Discharge in Surface Discharge in Air

A dielectric barrier surface discharge device was used to investigate the transition from a filamentary discharge to a glow discharge in air at different gas pressures. Discharge images and waveforms of the applied voltage and discharge current were recorded simultaneously, and it was found that the discharge could transit from filamentary to glow with the decrease in pressure. Optical emission spectra during the transition from a filamentary discharge to a glow one were recorded. Excited electron temperature can be determined from the ratios of the relative intensities of spectral lines while molecular vibration temperature can be measured by analysing spectral lines of the N2 second positive band system. The results show that both the excited temperature and molecular vibration temperature increase with the decrease in the gas pressure. Qualitative explanations are given.     

Numerical investigation on the effect of gas parameters on ozone generation in pulsed dielectric barrier discharge

Pulsed dielectric barrier discharge is a promising technology for ozone generation and is drawing increasing interest. To overcome the drawback of experimental investigation, a kinetic model is applied to numerically investigate the effect of gas parameters including inlet gas temperature, gas pressure, and gas flow rate on ozone generation using pulsed dielectric barrier discharge. The results show that ozone concentration and ozone yield increase with decreasing inlet gas temperature, gas pressure, and gas flow rate. The highest ozone concentration and ozone yield in oxygen are about 1.8 and 2.5 times higher than those in air, respectively. A very interesting phenomenon is observed: the peak ozone yield occurs at a lower ozone concentration when the inlet gas temperature and gas pressure are higher because of the increasing average gas temperature in the discharge gap as well as the decreasing reduced electric field and electron density in the microdischarge channel. Furthermore, the sensitivity and rate of production analysis based on the specific input energy (SIE) for the four most important species O₃, O, O(1D), and O₂(b¹∑) are executed to quantitatively understand the effects of every reaction on them, and to determine the contribution of individual reactions to their net production or destruction rates. A reasonable increase in SIE is beneficial to ozone generation. However, excessively high SIE is not favorable for ozone production.     

Impact of exterior electron emission on the self-sustaining margin of hollow cathode discharge

Hollow cathode researches used to focus on the inner cavity or downstream plume, however,rarely on the gap between the throttling orifice plate and the keeper plate(T-K gap), which was found to impact the self-sustaining margin of hollow cathode discharge in this paper. Near the lower margin, the main power deposition and electron emission and ionization regions would migrate from inner cavity and downstream plume to the T-K gap, in which case, the source and destination of each m A current therein matter for the self-sustaining capability. Changing the metal surfaces in the T-K gap with emissive materials proved effective in lowering the lower margin by supplementing auxiliary thermionic emission, compensating electron loss on cold absorbing walls and suppressing discharge oscillations. By doing so, the lower margin of a 4 A hollow cathode was lowered from 1 to 0.1-0.2 A, enabling it to couple with low power Hall thruster without extra keeper current.     

Electrical characters and optical emission spectra of VBD coupled SBD excited by sine AC voltage in atmospheric air

In this paper,volume coupled surface barrier discharge(V-SBD) with three structures possessing different volumes is excited by sine AC power in atmospheric air.Discharge images,waveforms of applied voltage and discharge current,and optical emission spectra simulating rotational and vibrational temperatures are recorded and analyzed.The effects of applied voltage on emission intensities of N_2(C~3Π_u→ B~3Π_g) and N_2~+(B~2∑_u~+ → X~2E_g~+),and rotational and vibrational temperatures are investigated.The results show that as applied voltage rises,emission intensities and rotational temperatures increase while vibrational temperatures decrease.In addition it is found that,as applied voltage varies,the rotational temperature of surface discharge changes faster than that of volume discharge.     

Measurements of plasma parameters in a hollow electrode AC glow discharge in helium

Measurements of the plasma parameters of coaxial gridded hollow electrode alternating current(AC)discharge helium plasma were carried out using an improved probe diagnostic technology.The measurements were performed under well-defined discharge conditions(chamber geometry,input power,AC power frequency,and external electrical characteristics).The problems encountered in describing the characteristics of AC discharge in many probe diagnostic methods were addressed by using an improved probe diagnostics design.This design can also be applied to the measurement of plasma parameters in many kinds of plasma sources in which the probe potential fluctuates with the discharge current.Several parameters of the hollow electrode AC helium discharge plasma were measured,including the plasma density,electron temperature,plasma density profiles,and changes in plasma density at different input power values and helium pressures.The characteristics of the coaxial gridded hollow electrode plasma determined by the experiments are suitable for comparison with plasma simulations,and for use in many applications of hollow cathode plasma.     

Hollow cathode atomic source applicable to gas,liquid residue,and solid sample phases

ABSTRACT

We have developed a compact DC-glow discharge hollow cathode atomic source without requiring extensive chemical pretreatment. This system is intended for laser absorption spectroscopy to function as the source of neutral atoms. Our investigative focus is on elements found in nuclear power related environments, particularly in the context of Fukushima Daiichi decommissioning. The elements constituting the samples are identified through investigating the emission produced by the relaxation of the sample atoms after being sputtered by Ne and Ar discharge. The emission spectrum was observed in pure substances and also compounds related to materials such as stainless steel, control material, cladding material, seawater, and concrete, which are expected to constitute the majority of radioactive wastes. In particular, brass and salt, compounds consisting of two elements, were sputtered to produce single atoms of each element. With a copper pipe as an example, the emission efficiency was also investigated, through which the optimal experimental conditions for sputtering were identified. It was found that sputtering would be likely to cause a reduction in pressure, and that emission intensity is related to the electronic temperature during discharge. In addition, this system is not restricted by sample shape or electronic conductivity, with only minor pretreatment.     

Influence of non-uniform electric field distribution on the atmospheric pressure air dielectric barrier discharge

The dielectric barrier discharge(DBD) in air at atmospheric pressure is not suitable for industrial applications due to its randomly distributed discharge filaments. In this paper, the influence of the electric field distribution on the uniformity of DBD is theoretically analyzed and experimentally verified. It is found that a certain degree of uneven electric field distributions can control the development of electron avalanches and regulate their transition to streamers in the gap. The discharge phenomena and electrical characteristics prove that an enhanced Townsend discharge can be formed in atmospheric-pressure air with a curved-plate electrode. The spectral analysis further confirms that the gas temperature of the plasma produced by the curved-plate electrode is close to room temperature, which is beneficial for industrial applications. This paper presents the relationship between the electron avalanche transition and the formation of a uniform DBD, which can provide some references for the development and applications of the DBD in the future.