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Environmental decontamination is a major challenge due to the rapid growth of industrial and technological development, requiring an important consumption of fossil energies. Nowadays, a new way to...

The aim of this work is to highlight the influence of the material constructing the anode in wire-to-cylinder negative corona discharge. A numerical simulation is presented where a plasma of pure oxygen has been considered. Three materials (stainless steel, copper, aluminum) are tested. The study is carried at atmospheric pressure and for different temperatures and voltages. The numerical results show the radial distribution of ozone for each wall material. The relationship between the material and its decomposition coefficient is revealed basing on the experimental current–voltage characteristic and in which the current is used as input data.

The purpose of this work is to highlight the chemical kinetics in plasma of pure oxygen. A comprehensive model of ozone generation in wire-to-cylinder negative corona discharge is presented. The model combines the physical processes in the discharge with the chemistry of ozone formation. It is based on an extensive reaction scheme including the major electronic and ionic processes. The importance of excited atomic and molecular states is demonstrated. The obtained results show clearly that the surface material affect quite well the ozone decomposition.

The reported heterogenous photocatalytic sythesis of NH 3 from N 2 and H 2 O in the presence of iron-doped TiO 2 or other semiconducting metal oxides has been investigated. Skepticism about this thermodynamically and mechanistically daunting process is appropriate, and the results reported here support a skeptical position. To assess the reproducibility of the results obtained by previous workers, we performed a large number of experiments under various conditions similar to those employed with apparent success by others. We also carried out 15 N isotope labelling experiments in which the lower limit of detection was around 0.2–1 nmol of added 15 NH 3 in 10 μmol of natural ammonia, i.e. two to three orders of magnitude below the levels reported in successful syntheses by others. All the catalysts tested promoted the photo-oxidation of ammonia under the conditions said to give ammonia photosynthesis. Photocatalytic nitrogen fixation was not found in any of the experiments, although in some cases results were obtained that could have been mistaken for nitrogen fixation. Our results suggest that the reported putative reaction does not occur. We recommend that any further research in this area should be based on standards of demonstration as rigorous as those applied in experiments on the biological fixation of nitrogen.