Inside Front Cover: Plasma Process. Polym. 6/2021

Abstract

Inside Front Cover: CO2, which widely exists in Martian atmosphere, can be converted into O2 and fuel in‐situ. The in‐situ utilization of the abundant CO2 resources will support the construction of Mars energy base. The conversion method based on plasma technology is expected to activate and transform CO2 molecules under mild conditions. The oxygen can be used for astronauts to breathe and the fuel will be stored to power the launcher or lander as well as the many activities on Mars. Further details can be found in the article by Cong Wang, Qiang Fu, Zhengshi Chang, and Guanjun Zhang (https://doi.org/10.1002/ppap.202000228).

Modeling study on temporal nonlinear behaviors in CO2 dielectric barrier discharges under Martian pressure

“…In this paper, the discharge gap with a width of 5 mm is much smaller than the width of the electrodes, and the assumption of the local field approximation is satisfied for a given discharge condition under Martian pressure. Thus, the one‐dimensional fluid model could capture the essential behavior of $${\text{CO}}_{2}$$ plasma [ 38 ] . The model applied in this paper has been validated by Wang et al [ 39 ] by comparing with the experimental measurements.…”

“…To maintain electrical neutrality, the initial densities of electrons and negative ions are $$1.0\times 1{0}^{5}\unicode{x0200A}\text{cm}{}^{-3}$$, and the initial densities of positive ions are $$2.5\times 1{0}^{5}\unicode{x0200A}\phantom{\rule{}{0ex}}\text{cm}{}^{-3}$$, and the initial densities of these particles do not seriously affect the final calculated dynamics within a reasonable range. Furthermore, the surface reactions are considered in this model, and the excited molecules and ions at the boundary of the gas gap are quenched to ground state molecules and neutralized to neutral species, respectively [ 38 ] . The flux boundary conditions for particles and the electron energy are used in this model, the secondary electron emission induced by ion bombardment is considered and the emission coefficient is 0.03 [ 58,59 ] .…”