Positive- and negative-pulsed argon plasma plumes in the open air

Cold atmospheric pressure plasma plumes have obtained great interests for their attractive features and application potentials. In this work, cold argon plasma plumes were generated in the open air by a single medical-needle excited by a high-power pulsed excitation source. Characteristic comparision was carried out in the plasmas under different polarties of applied voltages. The results showed that the positive pulsed plasma plume performed a larger discharge current and stronger optical emission than the negative case. Gas temperature of the plasmas were obtained by the Boltzmann plot method and fitting the syntheric-to-experimental spectrum of the OH (A-X) transition emission bands. It is found that both the positive and negative pulsed plasma plumes are under a relative low gas temperature about 400 K. Through the high-speed imaging, an interesting propagation process was observed for the positive pulsed plasma plume, during which the plasma first propagates in the form of plasma ‘bullets’, and then transits into typical stream propagation as soon as the ‘bullets’ disappears in the open air, which is much different with the negative case

Propagation dynamics of a room-temperature pulsed argon plasma plume through a simple dispersion-grating diagnostic method

In this paper, a novel grating-ICCD camera dispersion diagnostic method was designed to investigate the propagation behaviors of an open-air pulsed argon plasma plume. Based on the dispersion feature of gratings, the irradiative plasma plume was dispersed into several emission-volumes corresponding to different wavelengths. And a series of high-speed dispersed emission-image sequences were captured by the ICCD camera. From these sub-microsecond emission-images at different wavelengths, the temporal and spatial propagation behaviors of excited species in the plasma plume were observed clearly

Hydrogen peroxide generation by DC and pulsed underwater discharge in air bubbles

The generation of H(2)O(2) in underwater discharge in air bubbles is studied with consideration of the influence of electrodes polarity, input power, solution conductivity and the inter-electrode distance. The efficiency of hydrogen peroxide generation strongly depends on the polarity, input power and the inter-electrode distance. Discharges in air bubbles with water as a cathode have significantly higher energy yield of hydrogen peroxide in comparison with negative DC or pulsed discharges. The generation of hydrogen peroxide by DC discharge increases with decrease in the inter-electrode distance, but it is opposite for pulsed discharges. Different efficiency of H(2)O(2) production is explained based on physical processes which result to formation of OH radicals

Topology, connectivity and electronic structure of C and B cages and the corresponding nanotubes

After a brief discussion of the structural trends which appear with increasing number of atoms in B cages, a one-to one correspondence between the connectivity of B cages and C cage structures will be proposed. The electronic level spectra of both systems from Hartree-Fock calculations is given and discussed. The relation of curvature introduced into an originally planar graphitic fragment to pentagonal 'defects' such as are present in buckminsterfullerene is also briefly treated. A study of the structure and electronic properties of B nanotubes will then be introduced. We start by presenting a solution of the free-electron network approach for a 'model boron' planar lattice with local coordination number 6. In particular the dispersion relation E(k) for the pi-electron bands, together with the corresponding electronic Density Of States (DOS), will be exhibited. This is then used within the zone folding scheme to obtain information about the electronic DOS of different nanotubes obtained by folding this model boron sheet. To obtain the self-consistent potential in which the valence electrons move in a nanotube, 'the March model' in its original form was invoked and results are reported for a carbon nanotube. Finally, heterostructures, such as BN cages and fluorinated buckminsterfullerene, will be briefly treated, the new feature here being electronegativity difference.Comment: 22 pages (revtex4) 12 figure

Similarity and contrasts between thermodynamic properties at the critical point of liquid alkali metals and of electron-hole droplets

The recent experimental study by means of time-resolved luminescence measurements of an electron-hole liquid (EHL) in diamond by Shimano et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 88 (2002) 057404] prompts us to compare and contrast critical temperature T_c and critical density n_c relations in liquid alkali metals with those in electron-hole liquids. The conclusion drawn is that these systems have similarities with regard to critical properties. In both cases the critical temperature is related to the cube root of the critical density. The existence of this relation is traced to Coulomb interactions and to systematic trends in the dielectric constant of the electron-hole systems. Finally a brief comparison between the alkalis and EHLs of the critical values for the compressibility ratio Z_c is also given

A branching streamer propagation argon plasma plume

Cold atmospheric-pressure plasma plumes have obtained great interests for their attractive features and application potentials. In this paper, a pulsed argon plasma plume was generated in the open air. Characteristic propagation of the argon plasma plume was carried out through high-speed imaging by an ICCD camera. An interesting propagation process was observed for the plasma plume, during which the plasma first propagated in a single streamer channel, and then with side branching as the applied voltage increased. The side branches are generated surrounding the main plasma channel but not split from the anode tip. This branching streamer propagation behavior was much different from the bulletlike development of typical plasma jets or streamers in point-wire or point-plane gaps