Properties of Water-Pretreatment by Atmospheric Pressure Microplasma Discharge Using Nanopulse for Portable Device Applications

Abstract

Recently researches on water-pretreatment process by the decomposition of harmful organic materials using atmospheric pressure plasma (APP) have gained attentions due to the increase in the interests of water pollution1. Generally, organic materials are decomposed by active species, such as hydroxyl $\left(\text{OH}^{*}\right), \mathrm{O}^{*}, \mathrm{H}^{*}, \mathrm{H}_{2} \mathrm{O}_{2}, \text{HO}_{2}$ and ozone $(\mathrm{O}_{3})$ radicals generated in sample water using conventional large size APP methods. However, these methods require lots of spaces and high cost for operating equipment because of high power-consumption and relatively big size of equipment. Furthermore, there has been no report on the compact, portable, and low power-consumption APP device for direct water-pretreatment sensors applications. Therefore, it is necessary to develop the microplasma water-pretreatment device with streamer discharge, which is compact, portable, and low power-consumption, in order to increase the efficiency of plasma generation for direct water-pretreatment. So, here we report the novel and portable APP device for rapid water-pretreatment with low-power consumption by microplasma discharge. Thereby, optical emission spectroscopy (OES), Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), UV-visible spectroscopy (UV-vis.), and PH meter measurements have been investigated systematically with respect to various parameters, such as multi-pin to plate, DBD-to-water structures, micro-pulse, nano-pulse, electrode shape, and driving condition, respectively. The detailed characterization of water-pretreatment by atmospheric pressure microplasma with nano-pulse conditions using OES, FT-IR, UV-vis, and PH meter are under study and will be discussed in detail.