Effect of coexisting components on aromatic decomposition in a packed-bed plasma reactor Original Research Article

Decomposition of the aromatics benzene (C6H6), toluene (C6H5CH3), and o-xylene (C6H4(CH3)2) was carried out in a plasma reactor packed with BaTiO3 pellets in the presence of various background gases. The order of decomposition efficiency was C6H6C6H5CH3>C6H4(CH3)2. When the reactant gas consisted of a mixture of C6H6, C6H5CH3, and C6H4(CH3)2, decomposition of C6H6 was suppressed, whereas the decompositions of C6H5CH3 and C6H4(CH3)2 were enhanced compared with the single-component decompositions of these aromatics. It seems that the migration of reactant molecules to the solid surface and the molecular sizes play important roles in these behaviors.