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On the Production of Methane by Electrical Arcs in Ultra High Vacuum
Author(s) -
Jüttner B.,
Roth L.,
Wolff H.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
beiträge aus der plasmaphysik
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.531
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1521-3986
pISSN - 0005-8025
DOI - 10.1002/ctpp.19770170205
Subject(s) - methane , getter , hydrogen , impurity , desorption , adsorption , electric arc , analytical chemistry (journal) , materials science , chemistry , arc (geometry) , carbon fibers , electrode , metallurgy , composite material , environmental chemistry , optoelectronics , composite number , organic chemistry , geometry , mathematics
By mass spectrometry of residual gas in UHV‐arc‐chambers a cycle of production of methane has been found for clean electrodes, consisting in release of hydrogen during the arc, its re‐adsorption on freshly formed metal surfaces, followed by surface reactions of hydrogen with carbon impurities, and finally desorption of the resulting methane at room temperature after the arc. Existing methane is decomposed in part during an arc. In the pressure region ≦ 10 −4 Pa most of the residual gas is transformed to CH 4 if the electrodes contain metals with high gettering activity.