Production of O₃, NO, and N₂O in a Pulsed Discharge at 1 Atm

Abstract

The rates of formation of the oxides of nitrogen (NO, N20) and of ozone have been studied in a pulsed electrical discharge in air at atmospheric pressure. The "hybrid" discharge consisted of a brush discharge in which 03 and N20 were produced and of hotter filaments which formed NO. At lower flow rates the effect of N02 poisoning of the ozone production was found to be important. A diffusion model of the flow in the discharge tube was developed to describe the observed results and to predict the onset of N02 poisoning. Using these results an estimate is made of the contribution from natural point discharges at the surface of the earth to the N20 content of the atmosphere. It appears to be very small.

Influence of corona discharge on the ozone budget in the tropical free troposphere: a case study of deep convection during GABRIEL

“…Corona discharge in the vicinity of a lightning flash can be an additional regional source of ozone in convectively active areas. The NO yield from cold discharge (temperature < 3000 K) in association with lightning or on cloud droplets is lower compared to hot channel lightning which was already postulated by Donohoe et al (1977). In the hot flash channel the NO yield maximizes at 4000 K (Bhetanabhotla et al, 1985;Martinez and Brandvold, 1996;Navarro-González et al, 2001).…”

The global lightning-induced nitrogen oxides source

“…Today, lightning is known to produce very little O 3 (and N 2 O). In fact, ozone may get destroyed in the hot flash channel, but these gases may be formed from cold discharges and in the cold corona around hot flashes (Buettner et al, 1962;Donohoe et al, 1977;Griffing, 1977;Levine, 1981;Hill et al, 1988;Franzblau, 1991). In contrast, NO x is produced mainly by the hot lightning strokes, not corona discharges (Noxon, 1978;Martinez and Brandvold, 1996;Coppens et al, 1998).…”

“…(2) Assuming a discharge energy of 6.7 GJ per flash (Price et al, 1997b), a flash rate of 44 s −1 , a global discharge current of 1 kA (Donohoe et al, 1977) (the total air-Earth current is about 1.8 kA (Harrison, 2004)), and the molar mass of the respective species.…”

Ozone and nitrogen oxides production by DC and pulsed corona discharge

“…Corona discharge can provide energetic electrons that are capable of breaking nitrogen and oxygen molecules into atoms, which can later react to form ozone and diverse nitrogen oxides, such as NO, NO 2 , N 2 O, NO 3 and N 2 O 5 [4], [5]. However, the production of these species by DC and pulsed corona has received much less attention than by other type of discharges, particularly silent discharges.…”