LIF diagnostics of hydroxyl radical in a methanol containing atmospheric-pressure plasma jet**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11465013 and 11375041), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province, China (Grant Nos. 20151BAB212012 and 20161BAB201013), and the International Science and Technology Cooperation Program of China (Grant No. 2015DFA61800).

Abstract

In this paper, a pulsed-dc CH3OH/Ar plasma jet generated at atmospheric pressure is studied by laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) and optical emission spectroscopy (OES). A gas–liquid bubbler system is proposed to introduce the methanol vapor into the argon gas, and the CH3OH/Ar volume ratio is kept constant at about 0.1%. Discharge occurs in a 6-mm needle-to-ring gap in an atmospheric-pressure CH3OH/Ar mixture. The space-resolved distributions of OH LIF inside and outside the nozzle exhibit distinctly different behaviors. And, different production mechanisms of OH radicals in the needle-to-ring discharge gap and afterglow of plasma jet are discussed. Besides, the optical emission lines of carbonaceous species, such as CH, CN, and C2 radicals, are identified in the CH3OH/Ar plasma jet. Finally, the influences of operating parameters (applied voltage magnitude, pulse frequency, pulsewidth) on the OH radical density are also presented and analyzed.