Hybrid mesoporous titania/silica electron-generating and transporting layers were prepared using wet-coating with a dispersion consisting of prefabricated titania nanoparticles and a methyl-silica binder. Titania/methyl-silica wet layers were deposited by inkjet printing and further mineralized by low-temperature atmospheric-pressure air plasma using diffuse coplanar surface barrier discharge (DCSBD) to form a titania/silica hybrid nanocomposite coating. Morphological analysis performed by scanning electron microscopy revealed no damage to the titania nanoparticles and chemical analysis performed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy disclosed a rapid decrease in carbon and increase in oxygen, indicating the oxidation effect of the plasma. The coatings were further electrochemically investigated with linear sweep voltammetry and chronoamperometry. The magnitude of photocurrent and photocatalytic activity were found to increase significantly with the plasma exposure on the order of 10s of seconds. The results obtained demonstrate the potential of DCSBD ambient air plasma for fast and low-temperature mineralization of titania mesoporous coatings.

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Titania/silica electron-generating and -transporting nanocomposite 300 nm layers of high porosity were deposited onto ITO/PET flexible foils using inkjet printing. Prior to printing, the ITO surface had been modified by novel low-temperature ambient air roll-to-roll plasma in order to enhance its surface properties by removing carbon and oxygen contaminants, a process that led to rapid improvement of surface energy. Consequently the ITO work function, an important parameter involving charge injection efficiency in energy harvesting systems, increased by 1 eV. Afterwards, the TiO 2 /methyl-silica ink exhibited excellent wetting on a 2 s plasma-treated ITO surface. The coating was further processed/mineralized by an additional low-temperature ambient air plasma treatment step. The plasma processing of raw photoanodes led to the mineralization of the methyl-silica binder which resulted in the formation of a fully inorganic TiO 2 /SiO 2 mesoporous structure and significantly increased electrophotocatalytic activity, leading to increased photocurrents. The entire two-step plasma process was performed at low-temperature (70 °C) and high speeds, enabling practical applications of such a procedure for large-area fabrication of flexible photoanodes.

This contribution investigates the effects of duty cycle and mass flow of synthetic air and oxygen on the efficiency of ozone generation in multi-hollow surface dielectric barrier discharge (MSDBD). It discloses that the efficiency of ozone generation in MSDBD is significantly higher compared with standard coplanar DBD, surface DBD and volume DBDs. Ozone production yield reached 205.5 ± 29.1 g (kW h)−1 (40% duty cycle, 8 slm) and 413.91 ± 58.7 g (kW h)−1 (100% duty cycle, 8 slm) at an energy cost of 8.7 and 4.3 eV/molecule for synthetic air and oxygen, respectively. Such high ozone yields arose out of the intrinsic characteristics of MSDBD ceramics, which were efficiently cooled by the flow of the working gas. The amplitude modulation of low-frequency 5 kHz high-voltage sine waveforms facilitates controlled O3 production at a nearly constant rate of yield. Since the correct evaluation of ozone production yield requires precise determination of the discharge power, the concentration of ozone and working gas-flow, considerable attention was paid to measurements of these parameters. It is confirmed and experimentally demonstrated herein that correct determination of discharge power lies with Lissajous figure methods, while the determination of power through the direct integration of product u(t)i(t), where i(t) is measured by Pearson current probe, leads to systematically lower values of calculated power with consequent overestimation of the ozone production yield. The correct determination of discharge power is clearly the key to the proper calculation of ozone production yield and efficiency. Under the DBD discharge conditions presented herein, ozone production yield and efficiency achieved figures as high as 19.5% and 35.2% of theoretical limits recently established for air and oxygen, respectively.