Experimental Analysis of Cold Plasma With Glow Discharge Mechanism Under a Variety of Input Parameters

Abstract

Cold plasma with a glow discharge mechanism is a homogeneous and effective mechanism of nonthermal plasma for industrial applications due to the continuous and stable discharge process compared with the filamentary discharge. The discharge mechanism is essentially dependent upon the input parameters of the plasma system, such as the voltage supply, excitation frequency, and the flow rate of the background gas. This article discusses the effects of input parameters on plasma discharge characteristics produced from the plasma jet reactor. The voltage and supply frequency are tuned to match the discharge gap and background gas flow rate in producing the homogeneous glow plasma discharge. The characteristics of the glow plasma discharge produced were analyzed based on the characteristics of the time–domain discharge current and charge-voltage Lissajous figure techniques. Results show that the most efficient and uniform plasma was disclosed by the configuration of input parameters such as 0.5 kV of the applied voltage, 20 kHz of operating frequency, and 0.8 L/min of purified helium gas flow rate. The single pulse of discharge current and parallelogram-like Lissajous figure obtained indicating the homogeneous plasma discharge with a constant value of discharge capacitance.