Industrial applications of the one atmosphere uniform glow discharge plasma
- Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
Over the past six years, the author has developed at the UTK Plasma Sciences Laboratory a proprietary and patented technology for generating a One Atmosphere Uniform Glow Discharge Plasma (OAUGDP), and also for industrial plasma processing applications of this discharge. A OAUGDP in air efficiently generates plasma active species, including ozone and atomic oxygen, without the requirement of a vacuum system or batch processing. The OAUGDP operates in a frequency band determined by the ion trapping mechanism provided that, for air, the electric field is above about 8.5 kV/cm. For proper values of gap distance, RF driving frequency, and rms voltage, the OAUGDP produces a uniform plasma without avalanches, streamers, or filamentary microdischarges. In the OAUGDP, the plasma characteristics, including the electron energy and density, are functions of time. This time dependence has been studied experimentally and by computer modeling for an atmospheric helium plasma. The simulation clearly shows that at any given phase of the RF cycle, the instantaneous discharge between the electrodes has the classical characteristics of a DC normal glow discharge, including the negative glow, the Faraday dark space, the positive column, and the cathode region, in which the electric field and charge density obey Aston`s Law. The active species of the OAUGDP can be used to increase the surface energy of metals and polymers, to increase the wettability and wickability of polymeric fabrics and to sterilize and decontaminate surfaces compromised by infectious microbes and toxic chemicals. In addition, the OAUGDP can be operated in a wide range of geometrical configurations, from a slab plasma between parallel plates, to a surface plasma covering an isolated flat or curved surface, such as an airfoil. The surface OAUGDP can give rise to interesting and potentially important electrohydrodynamic (EHD) flow effects in the neutral background gas. This EHD flow acceleration can find application to aerodynamic boundary layer and flow control, pumping gases through tubes and ducts, and regulating the flow and uniformity of feed gases for atmospheric plasma processing.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, DC (United States); Tennessee Univ., Knoxville, TN (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 343590
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-980601-; TRN: IM9921%%53
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 25. international conference on plasma science, Raleigh, NC (United States), 1-4 Jun 1998; Other Information: PBD: 1998; Related Information: Is Part Of IEEE conference record -- Abstracts. 1998 IEEE international conference on plasma science; PB: 343 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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