Propane Conversion at Ambient Temperatures C–C and C–H Bond Activation Using Cold Plasma in a Microreactor

Abstract

In this work, the oxidative conversion of propane was studied using a dielectric barrier discharge microreactor. This generates a cold microplasma at atmospheric pressure and ambient temperatures. Surprisingly, large amounts of products with molecular weight higher than propane, such as C 4 and C 4 +, were mainly observed due to C-C bond formation, in contrast to what is usually observed for this reaction when it is carried out under thermal activation, which leads to cracking products. A chemical kinetic model was developed to better understand the radical reaction network. Interestingly, the results suggest that (i) at lower level of propane conversion the model can nicely predict the experimental results and (ii) depending on the radical density the product selectivity can be tailored. In particular, at higher radical density, enhanced C-C bond formation was observed.

Gas-to-liquids process using multi-phase flow, non-thermal plasma microreactor

“…Novel applications have been developed by the combination of microreactor technology and non-equilibrium plasma chemistry. Microplasmas in confined microchannels were used for the purpose of nanostructure synthesis [17][18][19][20], decomposition of volatile organic compounds [21][22][23][24] and chemical synthesis [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]. Recently, Nozaki et al reported a direct and selective synthesis of oxygenates via methane partial oxidation at room temperature using a non-thermal discharge microreactor [33][34][35].…”

Conversion of Pyrolysis Fuel Oils by a Dielectric Barrier Discharge Reactor in the Presence of Methane and Ethane

“…The CH 4 /C 2 H 6 gases were effectively dissociated by electron and argon metastable atom impacts in the Penning discharge model, creating sufficient CH χ radicals 24. Also, in many studies about current hydrocracking or plasma cracking, it was stated that cracking is enhanced by raising the temperature and H 2 concentration 26–29. Therefore, each parameter which increases the energy of the electrons (applied voltage) and the intensity of H, CH, and H 2 peaks in the plasma spectrum with methane and ethane as working gas and their flow rate, will improve the production rate of light hydrocarbons and also inhibit the production of heavy hydrocarbons.…”

A new ATR-IR microreactor to study electric field-driven processes

“…A possible cause for this effect is mechanical deformation of the microreactor due to the electrostatic attraction between the pillar tips and the opposite silicon part. Thus, it could be that, despite the additional supporting columns A c c e p t e d M a n u s c r i p t 11 implemented in the microreactor, the electrostatic force decreases the gap between pillar tips and ATR crystal surface. This leads to an effect similar to the "nanomechanical integratedoptical effect" first described by Lukosz et al [49], which consists in the modulation of light transmittance through planar optical waveguides caused by moving an element (e.g., a dielectric) in the evanescent field of the guided light.…”

“…High fields, where electrons are extracted from matter and injected into a medium [4,5], lead to a steady current through the system, involving processes like excitation [6,7], dissociation and cracking [8,9,10,11], dehydrogenation [12] or synthesis of molecules [13]. Typical examples are electrochemistry in liquids and plasma chemistry in gases.…”