CeO2-Enhanced CO2 Decomposition via Frosted Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma

Abstract

In this work, dielectric barrier discharge (DBD), a cold plasma phenomenon, was applied for CO2 decomposition. To enhance CO2 decomposition, we used a frosted dielectric quartz tube on which CeO2 was coated. Significantly increased CO2 conversion was thus achieved. The CO2 conversion reaches 23.3% over the CeO2-enhanced frosted dielectric barrier discharge (FDBD) at 10 mL/min and a discharge power of 14.5 W, whereas it is only 16.3% over the uncoated FDBD at the same conditions. The highest energy efficiency reaches 8.0% at 50 mL/min, with which the energy efficiencies over the uncoated FDBD and the unfrosted quartz tube-based DBD are 6.0 and 5.4%, respectively. The increased CO2 conversion with higher energy efficiency is caused by the improved microdischarge performance of the CeO2-enhanced FDBD, with an advantage of easy loading and convenient removal of the CeO2-coated quartz over the traditional DBD packed with CeO2 fine particles.