A cold plasma plume with a highly conductive liquid electrode

Abstract

A cold dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma plume with one highly conductive liquid electrode has been developed to treat thermally sensitive materials, and its preliminary discharging characteristics have been studied. The averaged electron temperature and density is estimated to be 0.6eV and 1011/cm3, respectively. The length of plasma plume can reach 5 cm with helium gas (He), and the conductivity of the outer electrode affects the plume length obviously. This plasma plume could be touched by bare hand without causing any burning or painful sensation, which may provide potential application for safe aseptic skin care. Moreover, the oxidative particles (e.g., OH, O*, O3) in the downstream oxygen (O2) gas of the plume have been applied to treat the landfill leachate. The results show that the activated O2 gas can degrade the landfill leachate effectively, and the chemical oxygen demand (COD), conductivity, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), and suspended solid (SS) can be decreased by 52%, 57%, 76% and 92%, respectively.