Ozone generation using positive- and negative-nano-seconds pulsed discharges

Pulsed discharges in atmospheric pressure gases have been studied for many years since it is one of the promising technologies for the removal of the hazardous environmental pollutants and ozone generation. In the literatures, especially, some researchers reported that an effect of pulse polarity on pollutants treatment. These experimental results indicate that the negative pulsed discharge gives an improvement of an energy efficiency of pollutant gas treatment. It is described that the polarity effect of pulsed discharge caused by difference of streamer propagation mechanism between both pulse polarities. However, no comparison results of the polarity effect in nanoseconds range pulsed discharge has been reported so far. In this paper, an investigation of the ozone generation using positive and negative nano-seconds pulsed discharges was conducted. In the experiments, ns pulse generator which has 5 ns of pulse duration in output pulsed voltage is employed. The results showed negative voltage polarity has higher ozone production yield than positive one at high voltage application.