Several typical active substances
(•NO, •NO2, H2O2, O3, •OH, and O2
–•), directly or indirectly play dominant
roles during dielectric barrier
discharge (DBD) reaction. This study measured these active substances
and removed them by using radical scavengers, such as catalase, superoxide
dismutase, carboxy-PTIO (c-PTIO), tert-butanol (TBA),
and MnO2 in different reaction atmospheres (air, N2, and O2). The mechanism for chlorobenzene (CB)
removal by plasma in air atmosphere was also investigated. The production
of ONOO–• generated by •NO took around 75% of the total production of ONOO–•. Removing •NO increased the O3 amount
by about 80% likely because of the mutual inhibition between O3 and reactive nitrogen species in or out of the discharge
area. The quantitative comparison of •OH and H2O2 revealed that the formation of •OH was 3.06–4.65 times that of H2O2 in
these reaction atmospheres. Calculation results showed that approximately
1.61% of H2O was used for O3 generation. Ionization
patterns affected the form of solid deposits during the removal of
CB in N2 and O2 atmospheres caused by Penning
ionization and thermal radiation tendencies, respectively. Correlation
analysis results suggested the macroscopic synergistic or inhibitory
effects happened among these active substances. A zero-dimensional
reaction kinetics model was adopted to analyze the reactions during
the formation of active substances in DBD, and the results showed
good consistency with experiments. The interactions of each active
substance were clarified. Finally, a response surface method model
was developed to predict CB removal by the DBD plasma process. Stepwise
regression analysis results showed that CB removal was affected by
the contents of different active substances in air, N2 atmosphere,
and O2 atmosphere, respectively: O2
–•, •OH, and O3; H2O2, ONOO–•, and O3; •OH and O3.