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.     

Dynamics of plasma bullets by nanosecond pulsed micro-hollow cathode discharge within air

In this paper, the air plasma jet produced by micro-hollow cathode discharge(MHCD) is investigated. The discharge is powered by a positive nanosecond pulse high voltage supply. The waveforms of the discharge, the images of the jet, the evolution of the plasma bullet and the reactive species are obtained to analyze the characteristics of the MHCD plasma jet. It is found that the length of the plasma jet is almost proportional to the air flow rate of 2–6 slm. Two plasma bullets appear one after another during a single period of the voltage waveform, and both of the two plasma bullets are formed during the positive pulse voltage off. The propagation velocity of the two plasma bullets is on the order of several hundred m/s, which is approximate to that of the air flow. These results indicate that the gas flow has an important influence on the formation of this MHCD plasma jet.     

Discharge characteristics and reactive species production of unipolar and bipolar nanosecond pulsed gas-liquid discharge generated in atmospheric

In this paper,unipolar pulse (including positive pulse and negative pulse) and bipolar pulse voltage are employed to generate diffuse gas-liquid discharge in atmospheric N2 with a trumpet-shaped quartz tube.The current-voltage waveforms,optical emission spectra of excited state active species,FTIR spectra of exhaust gas components,plasma gas temperature,and aqueous H2O2,NO2-,and NO3-production are compared in three pulse modes,meanwhile,the effects of pulse peak voltage and gas flow rate on the production of reactive species are studied.The results show that two obvious discharges occur in each voltage pulse in unipolar pulse driven discharge,differently,in bipolar pulse driven discharge,only one main discharge appears in a single voltage pulse time.The intensities of active species (OH(A),and O(3p)) in all three pulsed discharge increase with the rise of pulse peak voltage and have the highest value at 200 ml min-1 of gas flow rate.The absorbance intensities of NO2 and N2O increase with the increase of pulse peak voltage and decrease with the increase of gas flow rate.Under the same discharge conditions,the bipolar pulse driven discharge shows lower breakdown voltage,and higher intensities of excited species (N2(C),OH(A),and O(3p)),nitrogen oxides (NO2,NO,and N2O),and higher production of aqueous H2O2,NO2-,and NO3-compared with both unipolar positive and negative discharges.     

Influences of the inner diameter of the solid shielding tube on the characteristics of the radio-frequency cold atmospheric plasma jet

Active control of the local environment of the cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) jet is of great importance in actual applications since the CAP operates in an open atmosphere with the inevitable entrainment of the surrounding cold air. In this paper, the solid shielding effects of the cylindrical quartz tubes with different inner diameters on the characteristics of the CAP jets driven by a radio-frequency (RF) power supply are studied experimentally. The experimental results show that the total length of the shielded plasma jet can be increased significantly by an appropriate combination of the quartz tube inner diameter and that of the plasma generator nozzle exit with other parameters being unchanged. This phenomenon may be qualitatively attributed to the loss of diffusion of the charged particles in the radial direction under different inner diameters of the quartz tubes. Compared with the plasma free jet, the plasma shielding jet is produced with optimized parameters including longer plasma jet length, higher concentrations of chemically reactive species, higher rotational, vibrational, and electron excitation temperatures when the inner diameters of the solid shielding tube and the generator nozzle exit are the same. A maximum plasma jet length of 52.0 cm is obtained in contrast to that of 5.0 cm of the plasma free jet in this study. The experimental results indicate that the solid shielding effect provides a new method for the active control of the local environment of the RF-CAP jet operating in an open atmosphere.     

Discharge characteristics and reactive species production of unipolar and bipolar nanosecond pulsed gas–liquid discharge generated in atmospheric N_2

In this paper,unipolar pulse (including positive pulse and negative pulse) and bipolar pulse voltage are employed to generate diffuse gas–liquid discharge in atmospheric N_2with a rumpetshaped quartz tube.The current–voltage waveforms,optical emission spectra of excited state active species,FTIR spectra of exhaust gas components,plasma gas temperature,and aqueous H_2O_2,NO_2~-,andNO_3~-production are compared in three pulse modes,meanwhile,the effects of pulse peak voltage and gas flow rate on the production of reactive species are studied.The results show that two obvious discharges occur in each voltage pulse in unipolar pulse driven discharge,differently,in bipolar pulse driven discharge,only one main discharge appears in a single voltage pulse time.The intensities of active species (OH(A),and O(3p)) in all three pulsed discharge increase with the rise of pulse peak voltage and have the highest value at 200 ml min~(-1)of gas flow rate.The absorbance intensities of NO_2and N_2O increase with the increase of pulse peak voltage and decrease with the increase of gas flow rate.Under the same discharge conditions,the bipolar pulse driven discharge shows lower breakdown voltage,and higher intensities of excited species (N_2(C),OH(A),and O(3p)),nitrogen oxides (NO_2,NO,and N_2O),and higher production of aqueous H_2O_2,NO_2~-,andNO_3~-compared with both unipolar positive and negative discharges.     

Numerical study of atmospheric-pressure argon plasma jet propagating into ambient nitrogen

A 2D axial symmetry fluid model is applied to study the features of an atmospheric-pressure argon (Ar) plasma jet propagating into ambient nitrogen (N₂) driven by a pulsed voltage, emphasizing the influence of gas velocity on the dynamic characteristics of the jet. The results show that the Ar jet exhibits a cylindrical-shaped channel and the jet channel gradually shrinks with the increase in propagation length. The jet propagation velocity varies with time. Inside the dielectric tube, the plasma jet accelerates propagation and reaches its maximum value near the nozzle. Exiting the tube, its velocity quickly decreases and when approaching the metal plane, the decrease in jet velocity slows down. The increase in gas speed results in the variation of jet spatial distribution. The electron density presents a solid structure at lower gas flow speeds, whereas an annular structure can be observed under the higher gas flow velocity in the ionization head. The jet length increases with the flow velocity. However, when the flow velocity exceeds a critical value, the increase in the rate of the plasma jet length slows down. In addition, the gas velocity effect on the generation and transport of the reactive particles is also studied and discussed.     

Characteristics of Atmospheric Pressure Rotating Gliding Arc Plasmas

In this work,a novel direct current (DC) atmospheric pressure rotating gliding arc (RGA) plasma reactor has been developed for plasma-assisted chemical reactions.The influence of the gas composition and the gas flow rate on the arc dynamic behaviour and the formation of reactive species in the N2 and air gliding arc plasmas has been investigated by means of electrical signals,high speed photography,and optical emission spectroscopic diagnostics.Compared to conventional gliding arc reactors with knife-shaped electrodes which generally require a high flow rate (e.g.,10-20 L/min) to maintain a long arc length and reasonable plasma discharge zone,in this RGA system,a lower gas flow rate (e.g.,2 L/min) can also generate a larger effective plasma reaction zone with a longer arc length for chemical reactions.Two different motion patterns can be clearly observed in the N2 and air RGA plasmas.The time-resolved arc voltage signals show that three different arc dynamic modes,the arc restrike mode,takeover mode,and combined modes,can be clearly identified in the RGA plasmas.The occurrence of different motion and arc dynamic modes is strongly dependent on the composition of the working gas and gas flow rate.     

Compact High-Velocity Atmospheric Pressure Dielectric Barrier Plasma Jet in Ambient Air

In this paper,a non-thermal atmospheric pressure plasma jet at high streaming velocity operating with ambient air is highlighted.In the present technological approach,the employment of air poses a significant challenge.The high oxygen concentration in air results in a reduced concentration of reactive species in combination with a short species lifetime.The plasma jet assembly presented here contains a special dielectric barrier with a high secondary emission coefficient.In this way,the electron density and in turn the density of reactive species is increased.In addition,the plasma jet assembly is equipped with a short electrode.This leads to a higher voltage across the discharge gap and in turn to an increased density of reactive plasma species.The plasma jet is formed within and emitted by a small conical nozzle.A high-speed gas flow with gas velocity of 340 m/s was achieved at the end of the nozzle.In the jet the concentration of toxic and unwanted neutral plasma species like O_3 or NO_x is significantly reduced because of the shorter residence time within the plasma.The range of short-lived active plasma species is in turn considerably enhanced.The jet efficiency and action range measured through the oxidation of a test surface were determined by measuring the increase of surface tension of a polypropylene substrate via contact angle measurements after plasma treatment.Numerical modeling of the plasma plume indicates that oxygen atoms are in fact the main active species in the plasma plume.     

Effects of Gas Flow Rate on the Discharge Characteristics of a DC Excited Plasma Jet

A direct current(DC) source excited plasma jet consisting of a hollow needle anode and a plate cathode has been developed to form a diffuse discharge plume in ambient air with flowing argon as the working gas.Using optical and electrical methods,the discharge characteristics are investigated for the diffuse plasma plume.Results indicate that the discharge has a pulse characteristic,under the excitation of a DC voltage.The discharge pulse corresponds to the propagation process of a plasma bullet travelling from the anode to the cathode.It is found that,with an increment of the gas flow rate,both the discharge plume length and the current peak value of the pulsed discharge decrease in the laminar flow mode,reach their minima at about1.5 L/min,and then slightly increase in the turbulent mode.However,the frequency of the pulsed discharge increases in the laminar mode with increasing the argon flow rate until the argon flow rate equals to about 1.5 L/min,and then slightly decreases in the turbulent mode.     

Numerical study of the influence of dielectric tube on propagation of atmospheric pressure plasma jet based on coplanar dielectric barrier discharge

A 2D fluid model was employed to simulate the influence of dielectric on the propagation of atmospheric pressure helium plasma jet based on coplanar dielectric barrier discharge (DBD). The spatio-temporal distributions of electron density, ionization rate, electrical field, spatial charge and the spatial structure were obtained for different dielectric tubes that limit the helium flow. The results show that the change of the relative permittivity of the dielectric tube where the plasma jet travels inside has no influence on the formation of DBD itself, but has great impact on the jet propagation. The velocity of the plasma jet changes drastically when the jet passes from a tube of higher permittivity to one of lower permittivity, resulting in an increase in jet length,ionization rate and electric field, as well as a change in the distribution of space charges and discharge states. The radius of the dielectric tube has a great influence on the ring-shaped or solid bullet structure. These results can well explain the behavior of the plasma jet from the dielectric tube into the ambient air and the hollow bullet in experiments.     

Effect of methane content and the oscillating electric field between electrodes on atmospheric Ar/methane plasma jet and DLC coating deposition

In this work, the effects of the methane gas flow and the internal oscillating electric field between electrodes on radio-frequency(RF) atmospheric pressure argon/methane plasma jet and process of diamond-like carbon(DLC) film deposition have been investigated. Properties of RF atmospheric Ar/methane plasma jet such as active species density, length, electron temperature,appearance and ionization process of argon/methane plasma jet are changed due to the changing of methane flow content and electric field vector and its gradient. With increasing methane flow,the formation of C2 hydrocarbon and CH band content is decreased because injected electrical energy to a mixture of Ar/methane gases is insufficient to stabilize the ionization process of methane gas and the electrical-chemical reaction rate is decreased. With shortening the gas gap between two electrodes, electric field strength and its gradient are increased leading to more energy injection to the electron. Electrical-chemical reactions are strengthened leading to increasing the CH band content. These phenomena introduce the Ar/methane plasma jet in different modes causing to deposit the DLC film with different structures and properties. With using quartz glass and alumina ceramic as dielectric barriers tubes, RF atmospheric pressure Ar/methane plasma jet has been used to deposit DLC coating in different modes. Increasing methane content and shortening the gas gap leads to decreasing sp3 bonded content and the quality of the deposited film.     

Design,Construction and Characterization of AC Atmospheric Pressure Air Non-thermal Plasma Jet

This paper presents the design and construction of non-thermal plasma jet device which was built in plasma phys. Dept., NRC, AEA, Egypt with a plasma application group. This design will be useful to initiate research in different fields such as low temperature plasma, polymer and biomedical applications. The experimental operation of this device is conducted with power supply of (10 kV, 30 mA, and 20 kHz). The discharge process takes place by using Air as input gas with different flow rates. The experimental results showed that the maximum plasma jet length of 7 mm is detected at air flow rate of 12 L/min. The electrical characteristics of discharge at different flow rates of Air such as discharge voltage, current, mean power, power efficiency, and energy have been studied by using potential dividers and Lissajous figure techniques. The results of plasma jet temperature along the jet length showed that the jet plasma has approximately a room temperature at the end of jet column.     

阳极结构对直流非转移型等离子体射流特性的影响

本文介绍了自行研制的直流非转移弧等离子体炬的结构和工作原理,研究了不同阳极结构等离子体射流的特性与气体流量、弧功率的关系,以及侧向垂直送气对射流形貌的影响.结果表明,阳极结构对等离子体射流特性的影响较大,弧压随着阳极压缩角的增大而下降,较小压缩角的射流稳定性更好;通道直径较小的等离子体射流刚性更强;不同阳极结构的等离子体炬可以有不同的应用领域.     

Experimental Characterization of the Plasma Synthetic Jet Actuator

The plasma synthetic jet is a novel active flow control method because of advantages such as fast response,high frequency and non-moving parts,and it has received more attention recently,especially regarding its application to high-speed flow control.In this paper,the experimental characterization of the plasma synthetic jet actuator is investigated.The actuator consists of a copper anode,a tungsten cathode and a ceramic shell,and with these three parts a cavity can be formed inside the actuator.A pulsed-DC power supply was adopted to generate the arc plasma between the electrodes,through which the gas inside was heated and expanded from the orifice.Discharge parameters such as voltage and current were recorded,respectively,by voltage and current probes.The schlieren system was used for flow visualization,and jet velocities with different discharge parameters were measured.The schlieren images showed that the strength of plasma jets in a series of pulses varies from each other.Through velocity measurement,it is found that at a fixed frequency,the jet velocity hardly increases when the discharge voltage ranges from 16 kV to 20 kV.However,with the discharge voltage fixed,the jet velocity suddenly decreases when the pulse frequency rises above 500 Hz,whereas at other testing frequencies no such decrease was observed.The maximum jet velocity measured in the experiment was up to110 m/s,which is believed to be effective for high-speed flow control.     

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.     

Plasma jet array treatment to improve the hydrophobicity of contaminated HTV silicone rubber

An atmospheric-pressure plasma jet array specially designed for HTV silicone rubber treatment is reported in this paper. Stable plasma containing highly energetic active particles was uniformly generated in the plasma jet array. The discharge pattern was affected by the applied voltage. The divergence phenomenon was observed at low gas flow rate and abated when the flow rate increased.Temperature of the plasma plume is close to room temperature which makes it feasible for temperature-sensitive material treatment. Hydrophobicity of contaminated HTV silicone rubber was significantly improved after quick exposure of the plasma jet array, and the effective treatment area reached 120 mm?×?50 mm(length?×?width). Reactive particles in the plasma accelerate accumulation of the hydrophobic molecules, namely low molecular weight silicone chains, on the contaminated surface, which result in a hydrophobicity improvement of the HTV silicone rubber.     

The effect of gas additives on reactive species and bacterial inactivation by a helium plasma jet

In this paper,the influences of gas doping(O_2,N_2,Air)on the concentrations of reactive species and bactericidal effects induced by a He plasma jet are studied.Firstly,results show that gas doping causes an increase in voltage and a decrease in current compared with the pure He discharge under the same discharge power,which might be attributed to the different chemical characteristics of O_2 and N_2 and verified by the changes in the gaseous reactive species shown in the optical emission spectroscopy(OES) and Fourier transform infrared(FTIR)spectroscopy.Secondly,the concentrations of aqueous reactive oxygen species(ROS) and reactive nitrogen species(RNS) are tightly related to the addition of O_2 and N_2 into the working gas.The concentrations of aqueous NO_2~- and NO_3~- significantly increase while the concentrations of aqueous ROS decrease with the admixture of N_2.The addition of O_2 has little effect on the concentrations of NO_2~- and NO_3~- and pH values; however,the addition of O_2 increases the concentration of O_2~- and deceases the concentrations of H_2O_2 and OH.Finally,the results of bactericidal experiments demonstrate that the inactivation efficiency of the four types of plasma jets is He?+?O_2??He+AirHeHe+N_2,which is in accordance with the changing trend of the concentration of aqueous O_2~-.Simultaneously to the better understanding of the formation and removal mechanisms of reactive species in the plasma–liquid interaction,these results also prove the effectiveness of regulating the concentrations of aqueous reactive species and the bacteria inactivation effects by gas doping.     

Study on purification technology of polyacrylamide wastewater by non-thermal plasma

In this work, non-thermal plasma has been applied to treat polyacrylamide (PAM) wastewater. We have investigated the influence of the rule of PAM wastewater initial pH, solution concentration and discharge time, discharge voltage on chemical oxygen demand (COD) degradation rate. At the same time, the effect of pH and discharge time on the viscosity removal rate of PAM solution was also studied. Then, the effect of pH on the viscosity removal rate of 1.0 gl ⁻¹ PAM solution was studied separately. Through orthogonal test, the factors affecting the COD degradation rate of PAM wastewater were determined as follows: discharge time>discharge voltage>solution concentration>wastewater initial pH. The COD highest removal rate of PAM wastewater reached 85.74%, when the optimal conditions are as follows: discharge voltage 40 kV, discharge time 5 h, solution concentration 1.0 gl ⁻¹, pH 1.5. This research provides some basic data and new theoretical basis for PAM wastewater purification.     

The influence of grounded electrode positions on the evolution and characteristics of an atmospheric pressure argon plasma jet

An atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) in Ar with various grounded electrode arrangements is employed to investigate the effects of electrode arrangement on the characteristics of the APPJ.Electrical and optical methods are used to characterize the plasma properties.The discharge modes of the APPJ with respect to applied voltage are studied for grounded electrodepositions of 10 mm,40 mm and 80 mm,respectively,and the main discharge and plasma parameters are investigated.It is shown that an increase in the distance between the grounded electrode and high-voltage electrode results in a change in the discharge modes and discharge parameters.The discharges transit from having two discharge modes,dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) and jet,to having three,corona,DBD and jet,with increase in the distance from the grounded to the high-voltage electrodes.The maximum length of the APPJ reaches 3.8 cm at an applied voltage of 8 kV.The discharge power and transferred charges and spectral line intensities for species in the APPJ are influenced by the positions of the grounded electrode,while there is no obvious difference in the values of the electron excited temperature (EET) for the three grounded electrode positions.     

Numerical Study of Fluid Dynamics and Heat Transfer Induced by Plasma Discharges

A numerical investigation is conducted to explore the evolution of a plasma discharge and its interaction with the fluid flow based on a self-consistent fluid model which couples the discharge dynamics with the fluid dynamics.The effects of the applied voltage on the distribution of velocity and temperature in initially static air are parainetrically studied.Furthermore,the spatial structure of plasma discharge and the resulting force contours in streamwise and normal directions are discussed in detail.The result shows that the plasma actuator produces a net force that should always be directed away from the exposed electrode,which results in an ionic wind pushing particles into a jet downstream of the actuator.When the energy added by the plasma is taken into account,the ambient air temperature is increased slightly around the electrode,but the velocity is almost not affected.Therefore it is unlikely that the induced flow is buoyancy driven.For the operating voltages considered in this paper,the maximum induced velocity is found to follow a power law,i.e.,it is proportional to the applied voltage to the 3.5 power.This promises an efficient application in the flow control with plasma actuators.