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Water pollution due to emerging organic pollutants, such as agrochemicals, has become a topic of growing interest worldwide. The increase of pollutants in aquatic systems stimulated the development of new strategies for water remediation. Plasma technology is an advanced oxidation process which has proved to be an efficient method for organic matter degradation. In this work, a novel design of a trielectrode plasma reactor based on a dielectric barrier discharge extended to a third electrode operated in ambient air is presented. The water to be treated flows through a gutter with low impedance and far from the electrodes connected to the voltage sources. The reactor operates in ambient air, and it does not rely on the use of expensive inert gases. The design of the reactor is easily scalable. The performance of the reactor, in terms of the removal efficiency and the energy yield, was tested in an aqueous solution of the herbicide 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), one of the most widely used around the world. The reactor presents a good efficiency in the removal of the herbicide 2,4-D and values of energy yield of about 240 mg/kW h. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-frequency plasma jets driven by voltages in the frequency range of 6-60MHz are developed. A long plasma jet, 40mm in length, is successfully produced by using a pair of ring electrodes outside a quartz tube. The electrode pair consists of a wide power electrode and a narrow ground electrode that is positioned at the head of the tube. The ratio of the length of the ground electrode to the length of the power electrode must be small in order to produce long plasma jets. The highfrequency plasma jet is operated in a non-thermal-equilibrium state at a gas temperature of around 60°C. Operation at the very-high-frequency of 60MHz leads to a lower discharge voltage and lower electron energy compared to lower frequencies of 6 and 13.56MHz. The ability of the very-highfrequency (60 MHz) plasma jet to produce reactive oxygen and nitrogen species in water is also investigated. High H2O2 and NO3- concentrations of more than 1mmol/l are realized by irradiating 3ml of deionized water with the plasma for a short period of 2min. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laser ablation of a bulk Hf target in deionized (DI) water, ethanol, or toluene was carried out for the production of nanoparticles' colloidal solutions. Due to the interaction of the ablation plasma plume species with the species which are produced by the liquid decomposition at the plume-liquid interface, hafnia (HfO2) nanoparticles are synthesized in DI water, hafnium carbide (HfC) nanoparticles in toluene, and a mixture of these in ethanol. The hafnia nanoparticles are in the monoclinic low temperature phase and in the tetragonal and fcc high temperature phases. Their size distribution follows log-normal function with a median diameter in the range of 4.3-5.3 nm. Nanoparticles synthesized in DI water have band gaps of 5.6 and 5.4 eV, in ethanol 5.72 and 5.65 eV (using low and high pulse energy), and in toluene 3 eV. The values for the relative permittivity in the range of 7.74-8.90 were measured for hafnia nanoparticles' thin films deposited on substrates by drop-casting (self-assembled layers) in parallel plate capacitor structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]