Chemical and Electrical Aspects of Homogeneous Discharge in an Argon-Oxygen Mixture for Ozone Generation

Abstract

In this work, a dielectrics barriers discharge (DBD) in an Ar/O₂ gas mixture excited with sinusoidal applied voltage for ozone generation has been investigated in order to draw attention to the important role of the kinetic scheme of this gas mixture in the plasma discharge. The adopted model was based on argon-oxygen plasma chemistry, the external circuit, and the Boltzmann equations. This approach predicts the optimal operating conditions and can also describes the chemical and electrical aspects of the DBD reactor. The kinetic scheme of an Ar/O₂ gas mixture takes into account 15 species regrouped in 123 reactions. The time evolutions of kinetic and electric characteristics of plasma discharges, and the effect of the main discharge parameters on DBD behavior and ozone efficiency are analyzed and discussed.