Decomposition of volatile organic compounds in a positive column glow discharge plasma

Summary form only given. Plasma processing has been used for remediation of dilute mixtures of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in air. Energy efficiency is the main concern of these plasma technologies because large volume emissions have been treated. The destruction mechanisms of VOCs in plasmas greatly affect the economics of the process. We are exploring a novel plasma chemical scheme which is based on a extremely large dissociative electron attachment cross section. In this scheme highly-excited states of VOCs are excited by long-lived rare gas metastable states. In a dissociative electron attachment process a molecule is dissociated into neutral particles (or radicals) and a negative ion fragment. Most molecules have small dissociative attachment cross sections in their ground states. therefore the dissociative process could be weak. However when the molecules are highly excited close to their ionization potential, the dissociative attachment process becomes highly efficient, which enhances the decomposition of VOCs. Measurements were performed in a positive column glow discharge tube with a gas flow-through configuration.