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An Investigation into the Dominant Reactions for Ethylene Destruction in Non‐Thermal Atmospheric Plasmas
Author(s) -
Aerts Robby,
Tu Xin,
De Bie Christophe,
Whitehead J. Christopher,
Bogaerts Annemie
Publication year - 2012
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.201100168
Subject(s) - ethylene , metastability , plasma , radical , thermal , nitrogen , sigma , chemistry , oxygen , nonthermal plasma , kinetic energy , atomic physics , chemical physics , analytical chemistry (journal) , physics , thermodynamics , environmental chemistry , organic chemistry , nuclear physics , quantum mechanics , catalysis
Abstract A crucial step, which is still not well understood in the destruction of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) with low temperature plasmas, is the initiation of the process. Here, we present a kinetic model for the destruction of ethylene in low temperature plasmas that allows us to calculate the relative importance of all plasma species and their related reactions. Modifying the ethylene concentration and/or the SED had a major impact on the relative importance of the radicals (i.e., mainly atomic oxygen) and the metastable nitrogen (i.e., more specifically N 2 ( ${\rm A}^{3} \Sigma _{{\rm u}}^{ + } $ )) in the destruction process. Our results show that the direct destruction by electron impact reactions for ethylene can be neglected; however, we can certainly not neglect the influence of N 2 ( ${\rm A}^{3} \Sigma _{{\rm u}}^{ + } $ )).