OH radical production in an atmospheric pressure surface micro-discharge array

Abstract

The generation of OH radicals from an array of surface micro-discharges working in atmospheric pressure He/Ar/H2O mixtures is investigated. The absolute OH density and its temporal-and-spatial dynamics are detected by UV broadband absorption spectroscopy (UV-BAS) and laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) spectroscopy. The measured absolute density of OH(X) state is about 1021 m−3 in Ar/H2O mixture reaching a peak at 0.05% of H2O. In the case of He/H2O mixtures however, the peaking at ~1019 m−3 is approximately two orders of magnitude lower and decreases monotonously with increasing H2O content. From a control standpoint, the ratio of the Ar/He mixture may be adjusted to tune the OH density over two orders of magnitude and to modulate the H2O content dependence of the OH density. The capability of modulating the OH radical production over a large density range is of practical interest for many applications such as atmospheric chemistry and biochemistry. With the array of atmospheric micro-discharges sustained over a large electrode area, a uniform distribution of its OH density can be achieved in a plane parallel to the electrodes thus enabling spatially controlled surface treatment of large samples.