Two theories, explaining the time dependence of the negative corona discharge current in air, are confronted with new experimental results. The influence of the ozone concentration on the discharge current was experimentally confirmed in dry air and in mixtures of nitrogen with oxygen. Assuming that only the dissociative electron attachment to ozone molecule is a process being responsible for a reduction of the electron component in the total mean discharge current, the mean value of the electron attachment rate constant k = (3 -5.5)x lo-' cm-3 s-l was derived from the measured dependence of the discharge current on the ozone concentration. The calculated value of the rate constant k corresponds to the dissociative attachment of electron to ozone molecule via process e + 0 3 + products (0-or 0; negative ions).

No abstract