Current pulses and their influences on ozone production in oxygen-fed dielectric barrier discharge

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the current pulses and their effects on ozone generation during the process of ozone production in oxygen-fed dielectric barrier discharge. The experimental results show that there are large numbers of current pulses in the positive half-period of the current waveform but no obvious in the negative half-period. Moreover, the number of the current pulses in an AC cycle increases roughly linearly from 200 to 882 when applied voltage increases from 5 kV to 9 kV at 5 kHz. The number of these current pulses is almost independent of frequency. And these substantial current pulses occurring can be attributed to strong partial discharges generated in discharge gap may mainly resulting from the rough dielectric surface. Besides, these current pulses play an important role in the discharge characteristics and they are not in favor of ozone generation. The discharge power within current pulses is 1.47–1.76 times higher than the discharge power without current pulses and the ozone yield within current pulses is much lower than the ozone yield without current pulses. The decrease of ozone yield within current pulses is slightly more remarkable than the one without current pulses, because the discharge power within current pulses enhances more quickly.