Electrical Discharges in Polar Organic Liquids

Abstract

Electrical discharges in water for pollutant degradation have been studied intensively, but there are almost no studies on electrical discharges in organic solvents. In this study, three separate experiments are conducted in relatively polar organic solvents: diamond-like carbon (DLC) film synthesis, ammonia production, and hydrogen generation from methanol. The synthesis of DLC is attempted by conducting electrical discharge in four different organic liquids: acetone, methanol, acetonitrile, and dimethyl sulfoxide. Ammonia production is reported from both acetonitrile/water mixtures and hydrogen and methanol in the presence of nitrogen, although higher yields are measured from acetonitrile. Hydrogen production by electrical discharge from varying methanol/water mixtures is studied and the major liquid-and gas-phase byproducts of methanol decomposition are identified.

Chemistry of the Positive and Negative Electrical Discharges Formed in Liquid Water and Above a Gas–Liquid Surface

“…6a). Further confirmation of the thermal origin of the changes inside the plasma channels with a conductivity increase can be found in the manuscript that is under preparation [24] and deals with molecular hydrogen production from water at different conductitvities. In [24], the trend of hydrogen gas formation as a function of conductivity is the same as for that in [19] (hydrogen concentration goes through a maximum, after which it decays to zero with a further conductivity increase) again confirming the connection between conductivity, temperature rise and radical and molecular species distribution.…”

Decontamination of Streptococci biofilms and Bacillus cereus spores on plastic surfaces with DC and pulsed corona discharges

“…The polarity of the power supply was switched by reversing the position of a rectifier. The rotating spark gap power supply represents a simple and a cheap pulsed power supply that has been efficiently used for various environmental applications in air and water [21,22]. In the present work, the pulsed power was used only for the treatment of spores deposited on the plastic surfaces without water spraying.…”

Discharge Characteristics of Microwave Plasma in Ethanol Solution

“…Nowadays, microwave or radio-frequency discharge in liquid has been applied in many fields, such as decomposition of waste liquids [23][24][25][26][27], synthesis of nanomaterials [28][29][30][31], deposition of diamond [9], sterilization in medical fields [32], and production of fuel gas [27,33,34]. However, up to now, some fundamental study for microwave discharge in water has been rarely reported [35,36].…”