“…As shown in Figure , the generation rate of electronic excited-state molecules is k Ar N e N Ar + k N 2 N e N N 2 , where k Ar and k N 2 are the reaction rate constants of electronic excited-state argon and nitrogen, respectively; and N e , N Ar , and N N 2 are the number densities of electron, argon, and nitrogen, respectively. Considering the low ionization degree (much less than 1%) of microwave-induced discharge under ∼1 kW microwave at atmospheric pressure, ,, the number of argon and nitrogen molecules is approximately equal to xN g + (1 – x ) N g , where x is the argon content and N g is the number of molecules of gas. Therefore, the generation rate of electronic excited-state molecules is proportional to [ xk Ar + (1 – x ) k N 2 ] N e , abbreviated as kN e , where k is the total electronic state excitation rate constant.…”