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Atmospheric pressure plasmas are effective sources for reactive species, making them applicable for industrial and biomedical applications. We quantify ground-state densities of key species, atomic oxygen (O) and hydrogen (H), produced from admixtures of water vapour (up to 0.5%) to the helium feed gas in a radio-frequency-driven plasma at atmospheric pressure. Absolute density measurements, using two-photon absorption laser induced fluorescence, require accurate effective excited state lifetimes. For atmospheric pressure plasmas, picosecond resolution is needed due to the rapid collisional de-excitation of excited states. These absolute O and H density measurements, at the nozzle of the plasma jet, are used to benchmark a plug-flow, 0D chemical kinetics model, for varying humidity content, to further investigate the main formation pathways of O and H. It is found that impurities can play a crucial role for the production of O at small molecular admixtures. Hence, for controllable reactive species production, purposely admixed molecules to the feed gas is recommended, as opposed to relying on ambient molecules. The controlled humidity content was also identified as an effective tailoring mechanism for the O/H ratio., 35 pages, 14 figures

Cold atmospheric pressure plasma jets (CAPJs) are an emerging technology for the localised treatment of heat sensitive surfaces. Adding humidity to the CAPJ’s feed gas yields an effective production of highly reactive intermediate species, such as hydrogen atoms, oxygen atoms, and hydroxyl radicals, among others, which are key species for biomedical applications. This study focusses on the effluent of the CAPJ kINPen, which was operated with argon feed gas and a humidity admixture of 3000 ppm, while a gas curtain was used to limit the diffusion of ambient air into the effluent. The axial and radial density distribution of O and H atoms is measured by means of picosecond two-photon absorption laser induced fluorescence spectroscopy (ps-TALIF). A maximum O atom density of (3.8 ± 0.7) × 1015 cm−3 and a maximum H atom density of (3.5 ± 0.7) × 1015 cm−3 are found at the nozzle of the plasma jet. The experimental results are compared to a two-dimensional reacting flow model that is coupled with a local zero-dimensional plasma chemical model. With this model, the main H and O atom production mechanisms are determined to be the dissociation of H2O and O2 in the plasma zone of the plasma jet. The latter indicates, that a significant amount of oxygen (1%) was present inside the device. The reaction of OH with O atoms represents the main consumption pathway for O atoms and is at the same time a significant production pathway for H atoms. The main consumption of H atoms is through a three-body reaction including O2 to form HO2, which consumes more H and O atoms to form OH. It is pointed out, that most of the species are produced in the plasma zone, and that O and H atoms, OH and HO2 radicals, and O2 and H2O molecules are strongly connected.

Metastable states play an important role in many plasmas because they are often one of the main ionization channels and therefore essential for the discharge dynamics. Because of their high population, density fluxes of metastable states on surfaces are not negligible compared to fluxes of reactive species or ions. If the energy of argon metastable states (Arm) is high enough to cause bond breakage or other surface reactions, they can be an alternative component to treat substrates. In view of the role of Arm in an inductively coupled PECVD reactor for the deposition of barrier films on PET, the densities, lifetimes, and fluxes of Arm are quantified by means of tuneable diode laser absorption (TDLAS) and compared to the ion flux.

© 2016 IOP Publishing Ltd. Plasma-liquid interactions represent a growing interdisciplinary area of research involving plasma science, fluid dynamics, heat and mass transfer, photolysis, multiphase chemistry and aerosol science. This review provides an assessment of the state-of-the-art of this multidisciplinary area and identifies the key research challenges. The developments in diagnostics, modeling and further extensions of cross section and reaction rate databases that are necessary to address these challenges are discussed. The review focusses on non-equilibrium plasmas.

In order to assess the capillary segmented flow reactor as a potentially appropriate reactor device for the enzymatic hydrolysis of vegetable oils, a study was made to reveal the impact of incident mass transfer processes on the hydrolysis rate. As demonstrated by means of experiments performed in a modified Lewis-cell type contactor, which allows the independent adjustment of flow rates for both phases, the enzymatic hydrolysis rate of rapeseed oil is strongly governed by mass transport processes taking place in both phases. In the oil phase, any increase in convective mass transfer results in an enhancement of hydrolysis rate due to facilitated removal of fatty acids from interface layer which is known to inhibit the activity of the enzyme adsorbed at the interface. At asynchronous condition when solely the water phase is agitated, however, convective mass transport in the interface layer has an inverse effect on the hydrolysis rate due to the generation of considerable shear stress in the vicinity of the interface unfavorable for the performance of the enzymes. By operating at synchronous agitation conditions, the shear stress can considerably be reduced. Generally, the positive effect of mass transport in the oil phase compensates the negative one in the aqueous phase thus resulting in an overall increase in hydrolysis rate of 57 % with increasing stirrer rates. The results can be applied to the operation of segmented-flow capillary reactors by choosing the oil phase as disperse phase and the water phase as continuous phase, respectively.

In this paper we study the properties of a pulsed dc microdischarge with the continuous flow of argon. Argon metastable lifetimes are measured by tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS) and are compared with calculated values which yield information about excitation and de-excitation processes. By increasing the gas flow-rate about 5 times from 10 to 50 sccm, the Arm lifetime increases from 1 to 5 μs due to the reduction of metastable quenching with gas impurities. Optical emission spectroscopy reveals nitrogen and water molecules as the main gas impurities. The estimated N2 density [N2] = 0.1% is too low to explain the measured metastable lifetimes. Water impurity was found to be the main de-excitation source of argon metastable atoms due to high quenching coefficients. The water impurity level of [H2O] = 0.15% to 1% is sufficient to bring calculated metastable lifetimes in line with experiments. The maximum value of water content in the discharge compared to the argon atoms is estimated to a...

An argon/nitrogen (0.999/0.001) filamentary pulsed discharge operated at atmospheric pressure in a quartz tube is characterized using voltage–current measurements, microphotography, optical emission spectroscopy (OES) and absorption spectroscopy. Nitrogen is applied as a sensor gas for the purpose of OES diagnostic. The density of argon metastable atoms Ar(3P2) is determined using tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS). Using a plasma chemical model the measured OES data are applied for the characterization of the plasma conditions. Between intense positive pulses the discharge current oscillates with a damped amplitude. It is established that an electric current flows in this discharge not only through a thin plasma filament that is observed in the discharge image but also through the whole cross section of the quartz tube. A diffuse plasma fills the quartz tube during a time between intense current pulses. Ionization waves are propagating in this plasma between the spike and the grounded area of the tube producing thin plasma channels. The diameter of these channels increases during the pause between the propagation of ionization waves probably because of thermal expansion and diffusion. Inside the channels electron densities of ~2 × 1013 cm−3, argon metastable densities ~1014 cm−3 and a reduced electric field about 10 Td are determined.