Plasma-Driven Conversion of Carbon Dioxide and Nitrogen

Abstract

Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) is a type of plasma created at or near room temperature using atmospheric gases (e.g. air, nitrogen, or oxygen). It is used for various applications including surface cleaning, surface modification, and biomedical treatments. CAP is produced by applying a high voltage to a gas to create a plasma discharge, resulting in the creation of reactive species such as ions, radicals, and UV photons. The unique plasma environment can initiate a range of chemical reactions cannot achieved under ambient conditions. This special characteristic of CAP has also been applied to the current most demanding energy area, especially carbon dioxide (CO2) conversion and nitrogen (N2) fixation. Under CAP, intrinsic stabled N2 and CO2 molecules can be activated to various excited state, facilitating following oxidative, reductive or dissociation reactions. However, the biggest challenges of N2 and CO2 plasma activation is the product selectivity also caused by its complex plasma chemical environmental. In this project, the plasma activation, controlling, and analysis of N2 and CO2 using an atmospheric dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactor and plasma bubble reactor are investigated. This is done by plasma reactor design with electrical and optical characterization for plasma gaseous phase analysis. The relative reaction mechanisms are than proposed and compared to the experimental data. This is done by using plasma kinetic models and density function theory (DFT) calculations.