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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Paul ChristensenORCiD, Zeinab Mashhadani
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
This paper reports the appraisal of two in situ Fourier Transform InfraRed plasma cells with respect to the interrogation of the glow of a non-thermal plasma (using a transmission cell), and the non-thermal plasma/solid (i.e. dielectric/catalyst) interface (with a reflectance cell). The paper also reports, for the first time, a direct comparison of the IR spectroscopy of plasma- and thermally-driven chemistry. The system chosen for study was the reduction of CO2 as there is a wealth of data in the literature for comparison. The catalyst was Macor, a ceramic material comprising primarily Al, Si and Mg oxides. In both the thermal and plasma experiments, rotationally-excited CO2 ( CO*2CO2* ) was observed: in the plasma system, rotationally-excited CO (CO*) was produced via the reduction of CO2. Using the transmission cell, the conversion of CO2 to CO was estimated and found to be up to 9% at energy efficiencies of ca. 1–2%, in line with the literature. No reaction of CO2 was observed in the thermal system. The data obtained using the reflectance cell were similar to those obtained with the transmission cell, with the minor differences reflecting the longer residence time and higher specific input energy. Interestingly, two plasma-induced bands were observed in the reflectance experiments which increased in intensity with time and input power: these may be due transverse and longitudinal optical modes of SiO2 and did not appear to participate in the observed chemistry.
Author(s): Christensen PA, Abd Halim BMA, Mashhadani ZTAW, Martin PA
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Plasma Chemistry and Plasma Processing
Year: 2018
Volume: 38
Issue: 2
Pages: 293–310
Print publication date: 01/03/2018
Online publication date: 31/01/2018
Acceptance date: 14/01/2018
Date deposited: 06/02/2018
ISSN (print): 0272-4324
ISSN (electronic): 1572-8986
Publisher: Springer US
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11090-018-9874-6
DOI: 10.1007/s11090-018-9874-6
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