Spectroscopic analysis and Plasma Chemistry of atmospheric pressure carbon dioxide plasma in arrays of microchannel devices

Summary form only given. Microplasma technology is being investigated as a new candidate to efficiently dissociate or remediate carbon dioxide contained in atmosphere.¹ Primary efforts has been made to maximize the dissociation of carbon dioxide in microchannels with controlled electric field strength. A multiple microchannels having parabolic cross-section were prepared by a series of microfabrication techniques on soda-lime glass or electrochemically grown alumina substrates. The minimum dimension of these channels were obtained as small as few hundreds micrometers in depth and width. Flow of pure carbon dioxide or its mixtures with various atmospheric gases were passed through these channels which applied with 20-30 kHz ac voltages of 1-3 kV_RMS. Several types of dielectric/electrode structure were fabricated for the optimization of device performance, and reaction product from the device was analyzed with optical emission spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and quantitative analysis. Also, Quadrupole mass spectrometry was used to measure in situ analysis of gas composition. The CO2/CO conversion rate and efficiency in various microchannel device structure will be discussed in detail.