Three-body electron attachment to O2 molecules and electron detachment from ions have been theoretically studied in vibrationally excited oxygen and O2-containing mixtures. Assuming that electron attachment and detachment proceed via the formation of vibrationally excited temporary ions, the rates of these processes were determined on the basis of the statistical approach for the vibrational transfer and relaxation in collisions between ions and O2 molecules. The calculated attachment and detachment rate constants turned out to agree well with available measurements in unexcited oxygen. This method was extended to calculate attachment and detachment rates in vibrationally excited oxygen. It was shown that the effect of vibrational excitation on electron detachment is profound, whereas attachment of low-energy electrons to vibrationally excited O2 is inefficient. The calculated vibrational distribution of stable ions turned out to be non-equilibrium in an excited gas and the effective vibrational temperature of the ions was much lower than the vibrational temperature of molecules. An analytical method was suggested to determine this distribution and the effective vibrational temperature. The calculated rate constants were used to simulate the formation and decay of an electron-beam-generated plasma in N2 : O2 mixtures at elevated vibrational temperatures. The calculations showed that vibrational excitation of molecules leads to orders of magnitude increase in the plasma density and in the plasma lifetime, in agreement with available observations.

The results of the experimental and numerical study of high-voltage nanosecond discharge afterglow in pure methane, ethane and propane are presented for room temperature and pressures from 2 to 20 Torr. Time-resolved electron density during the plasma decay was measured with a microwave interferometer for initial electron densities in the range between 5 × 10 10 and 3 × 10 12 cm −3 and the effective recombination coefficients were obtained. Measured effective recombination coefficients increased with gas pressure and were much higher than the recombination coefficients for simple molecular hydrocarbon ions. The properties of plasma in the discharge afterglow were numerically simulated by solving the balance equations for charged particles and electron temperature. Calculations showed that electrons had time to thermalize prior to the recombination. The measured data were interpreted under the assumption that cluster hydrocarbon ions are formed during the plasma decay that is controlled by the dissociative electron recombination with these ions at electron room temperature. Based on the analysis of the experimental data, the rates of three-body formation of cluster ions and recombination coefficients for these ions were estimated.

Ignition of stoichiometric hydrocarbon : air mixtures by a nanosecond surface dielectric barrier discharge has been experimentally studied at room temperature and atmospheric and subatmospheric pressures. Observations were made for different voltage polarities and shapes of the high-voltage electrode. The ignition delay time and the velocity of the combustion wave were measured in a C 2 H 2 : air mixture versus applied voltage by processing discharge gap images. It was concluded that the mixtures are ignited easier by the discharge for a negative voltage polarity and when it develops from a gear-like electrode. A 2D simulation of the discharge was performed to calculate the temporal and spatial distributions of generated active species and gas temperature during the discharge and in its afterglow for both electrode polarities. It was shown that the voltage threshold for ignition by a negative-polarity discharge is lower than that for a positive-polarity discharge, in qualitative agreement with observations. This is due to the formation of a region with efficient active species production and fast gas heating in the immediate vicinity of the high-voltage electrode when a voltage of negative polarity is applied to it.

This paper presents the results of experimental and theoretical studies of an afterglow in room temperature air and O2 excited by a high-voltage nanosecond discharge for pressures between 1 and 10 Torr. We measured time-resolved electron density by a microwave interferometer for initial electron densities in the range (2–3) × 1012 cm−3. Discharge uniformity was investigated by optical methods. The balance equations for charged particles and electron temperature were numerically solved to describe the temporal evolution of the densities of electrons and ions in the discharge afterglow. It was shown that the loss of electrons is governed by dissociative and three-body electron recombination with ions under the conditions considered. Good agreement between the calculated and measured electron density histories could be obtained only when the rate of three-body recombination was increased by an order of magnitude and when the dependence of the recombination rate on electron temperature was changed. This could testify that the well-understood mechanism of three-body electron recombination with atomic ions could be noticeably modified in the case of molecular ions.

International audienceThe decay of air plasma produced by a high-voltage nanosecond discharge at room temperature and gas pressures in the range of 1–10 Torr was studied experimentally and theoretically. The time dependence of the electron density was measured with a microwave interferometer. The initial electron density was about 10¹2 cm–3. The discharge homogeneity was monitored using optical methods. The dynamics of the charged particle densities in the discharge afterglow was simulated by numerically solving the balance equations for electron and ions and the equation for the electron temperature. It was shown that, under these experimental conditions, plasma electrons are mainly lost due to dissociative and three-body recombination with ions. Agreement between the measured and calculated electron densities was achieved only when the rate constant of the three-body electron–ion recombination was increased by one order of magnitude and the temperature dependence of this rate constant was modified. This indicates that the mechanism for three- body recombination of molecular ions differs from that of the well-studied mechanism of atomic ion recombination