The hydroxyl radical (OH) plays an important role in plasma chemistry at atmospheric pressure. OH radicals have a higher oxidation potential compared with other oxidative species such as free radical O, atomic oxygen, hydroperoxyl radical (HO 2 ), hydrogen peroxide(H 2 O 2 ) and ozone. In this study, surface discharges on liquids (water and its solutions) were investigated experimentally. A pulsed streamer discharge was generated on the liquid surface using a point-to-plane electrode geometry. The primary generation process of OH radicals is closely related to the streamer propagation, and the subsequent secondary process after the discharge has an influence on the chemical reaction. Taking into account the timescale of these processes, we investigated the behavior of OH radicals using two different diagnostic methods. Time evolution of the ground-state OH radicals above the liquid surface after the discharge was observed by a laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) technique. In order to observe the ground-state OH, an OH [A 2 + (v = 1) ← X 2 (v = 0)] system at 282 nm was used. As the secondary process, a portion of OH radicals diffused from gas phase to the liquid surface and dissolved in the liquid. These dissolved OH radicals were measured by a chemical probe method. Terephthalic acid was used as an OH radical trap and fluorescence of the resulting 2-hydroxyterephthalic acid was measured. This paper directly presents visualization of OH radicals over the liquid surface by means of LIF, and indirectly describes OH radicals dissolved in water by means of a chemical method.

A novel plasma method and its application for destruction of Freons using a moderate-power (several hundred watts) microwave torch discharge (MTD) in atmospheric-pressure flowing nitrogen are presented. The capability of the MTD to decompose Freons is demonstrated using a chlorofluorocarbon CCl3F (Freon CFC-11) as an example. The gas flow rate and microwave power (2.45 GHz) delivered to the MTD were 1–3 litre min−1 and 200–400 W, respectively. Concentration of the CFC-11 in the nitrogen was up to 50%. The results show that the decomposition efficiency of CFC-11 is up to 100% with the removal rate of several hundred g h−1 and energy efficiency of about 1 kg kWh−1. This impressive performance, superior to that of other methods, is achieved without generating any significant unwanted by-products. As a result of this investigation, a relatively low-cost prototype system for Freon destruction based on a moderate-power MTD and a scrubber is proposed.

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