Catalytic properties of surfaces with respect to generation of CO2 molecules in the plasma Original Research Article

The methods of molecular optical actinometry, mass spectrometry and gas chromatography have been applied to measure the absolute density of the CO2 dissociation products in non-equilibrium medium-pressure capillary glow discharge. It has been shown that capillary discharges are characterized by strong dissociation of carbon dioxide molecules. With increasing the power input, and decreasing pressure, the degree of CO2 dissociation increases monotonically. The density of carbon monoxide molecules in the discharge tube from the beryllium oxide were approximately twice lower, than the corresponding density in the similar discharge tube from the molybdenum glass. The same tendencies were observed for the density of oxygen atoms in the sealed-off regime of the discharge. This we put down to differing catalytic properties of the surfaces with respect to carbon monoxide and oxygen recombination on the tube walls with regeneration of carbon dioxide molecules.