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Effective Electrode Work Functions in Helium Gas Tungsten Arc During Operation
Author(s) -
Tashiro Shinichi,
Nishikawa Hiroshi,
Tanaka Manabu
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
plasma processes and polymers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.644
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1612-8869
pISSN - 1612-8850
DOI - 10.1002/ppap.200732315
Subject(s) - tungsten , work function , helium , argon , electrode , materials science , work (physics) , boiling point , electric arc , atmospheric pressure , cathode , atomic physics , analytical chemistry (journal) , metallurgy , chemistry , thermodynamics , physics , organic chemistry , chromatography , meteorology , metal
Tungsten is the most commonly used electrode material for electric arcs such as gas tungsten arcs (GTA) because of its high melting point and high boiling point. There are many applications of electric arcs in industrial processing of material. In this study, the effective work function of the tungsten cathode for helium GTA at atmospheric pressure was measured with the experimental method of Schlager and Neiger, which is based on using “Fowler plots” for estimating the work functions of materials. It was found that the effective work function of helium GTA is 2.2 eV lower than that of argon GTA by 0.8 eV due to the Schottky effect.