A Short Course on Atmospheric-Pressure, Non-Thermal Plasma Processing: Basic Theory and Applications
L. Rosocha, P-24

June 23-24, TA-35, Bld 86, room 205

Non-thermal plasmas (NTPs) - sometimes called non-equilibrium or ‘cold’ plasmas - are characterized by conditions in which the various plasma species are not in thermal equilibrium - that is, electrons, ions, and neutral species have different temperatures, with the less massive electrons having the highest temperature (e.g., 1-10 eV). ). Such plasmas are good sources of highly reactive oxidative and reductive species, e.g., O(3P), OH, N, H, NH, CH, O3, O2(1∆), and plasma electrons. Via these reactive species, one can direct electrical energy into favorable gas chemistry through energetic electrons. NTPs can be easily created by an electrical discharge in a gas. Atmospheric-pressure NTPs have much greater process throughput, compared to the low pressure NTPs characterized by semiconductor materials-processing. Over the past two decades, there has been considerable interest in applying atmospheric pressure NTP processing to hazardous chemical destruction, pollution control, surface decontamination and/or modification, and combustion enhancement. The hazardous chemical processing and pollution-control applications range from the treatment of hydrocarbon and halocarbon compounds (many solvents), that are entrained in soil and water or are emitted as stack gases, to the treatment of oxides of nitrogen (nitric oxide NO, in particular) in flue and engine-exhaust gases. Surface decontamination applications have been focused on actinides and chemical/biological warfare agents. Surface modification applications include surface treatment of plastics, textiles, and other materials to change adhesion, dye take up, or stain resistance. Combustion enhancement applications include gas burners, internal combustion engines, and gas turbine engines. Research in this area of NTP processing represents a fusion of the fields of electrical discharge physics, plasma chemistry, and pulsed power. In this course, we will examine potential applications of atmospheric-pressure NTP processing for various applications, associated discharge physics and plasma chemistry, and power conditioning for driving the NTP reactors.