Eur. Phys. J. D 61, 657-662 (2011)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2010-10246-4

Effect of catalysts on dc corona discharge poisoning

Czech Technical University in Prague, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Technická 2, 16627 Prague, Czech Republic

Corresponding author: ^a pekarek@fel.cvut.cz

Received: 3 May 2010
Revised: 15 October 2010
Published online: 4 February 2011

Abstract

The processes of ozone generation in non-thermal plasma produced by an electrical discharge in air at atmospheric pressure are burdened by the presence of nitrogen oxides, which on the one hand contribute to ozone generation and on the other hand are responsible for unpleasant discharge poisoning. The term discharge poisoning refers to the situation when the discharge ozone formation completely breaks down. Discharge poisoning can be affected by placing a catalyst in the discharge chamber. For the dc hollow needle to mesh corona discharge enhanced by the flow of air through the needle electrode we studied the effect of titanium dioxide TiO₂, ZSM-5 zeolite or Cu⁺⁺ZSM-5 zeolite on discharge poisoning by monitoring the ozone, nitrogen monoxide and nitrogen dioxide discharge production. We found that placing globules of any of these catalysts on the mesh decreases the energy density of the onset of discharge poisoning, and this energy density is smallest for a discharge with globules of a TiO₂ on the mesh.