Comparative study between atmospheric microwave and low-frequency plasmas: Production efficiency of reactive species and their effectiveness

Abstract

The characteristics of low-frequency (LF) and microwave-powered plasmas were investigated. The optical emission of these two plasmas indicated that more chemicals were generated by microwave plasma than by LF plasma with the intensities being higher by factors of about 9, 3, 5, and 1.6 for OH (309 nm), O (777 nm), NO (247 nm), and Ca2+ (290 nm), respectively. Application experiments were also conducted. A steel plate became hydrophilic after 45 s of microwave plasma treatment. This is more than ten times faster than in the case of LF plasma treatment, an action related to the generation of reactive species (e.g., OH, O, and NO) as measured by optical emission spectroscopy (OES). Ca2+ generation was verified by blood coagulation experiment. Microwave-plasma-induced coagulation was twice faster than LF-plasma-induced coagulation. Simulation results that explain the chemical generation in microwave plasma were also included. High-energy electrons were considered a major factor for microwave plasma characteristics.