Experimental Study of Coaxial Cylinder Dielectric Barrier Discharge in Ar/NH3 Mixtures under the Atmosphere-Pressure.

An atmosphere-pressure Dielectric Barrier Discharge in Ar/NH3 mixtures between cylinder electrodes is studied by Optical Emission Spectroscopy and the main particles of atmosphere-pressure Ar/NH3 DBD plasma are NH, N, N+, N2, Ar, H(α) and OH. NH is decomposition products of NH3, and NH(c 1π) and NH(A 3π) are two kinds of excited-state neutral particles and produced by penning ionization of Ar* and NH3. The nitrogen active atom is detected at 674.5 nm which may provide the experimental foundation for the synthesis of ε-Fe3N ferroparticles by the atmosphere-pressure Ar/NH3 DBD plasma. The intensities of main particles are analyzed at different NH3 flow rate and applied voltage peak-peak value. The results show that the spectral line intensities of various particles increase with the rise of the applied voltage peak-peak value at the same NH3 flow rate, and first increase and then decrease with the increase of the NH3 flow rate at the same applied voltage peak-peak value. The applied voltage peak-peak value being kept constant, the spectral line intensity of nitrogen active atom first increases and then decreases with the increase of the NH3 flow rate. When NH3 flow rate is 20 mL x min(-1), the spectral line intensity of nitrogen active atom reaches a maximum at the same applied voltage peak-peak value. The spectral line intensity of nitrogen active atom decreases gradually with increasing the applied voltage peak-peak value at the same NH3 flow rate and it is mainly because of the translation of discharge mode from multi-pulse APGD to filamentary discharge in the atmosphere-pressure Ar/NH3 DBD. The microdischarge channels overlap and the microdischarges affect each other in multi-pulse APGD; hence the increasing rate of the spectral line intensity is quicker in multi-pulse APGD than in filamentary discharge with increasing the applied voltage peak-peak value. When the applied voltage peak-peak value is up from 4 600 to 6 400 V, the single-pulse and two-pulse APGD mode which are two kinds of homogeneous DBD mode are found in the atmosphere-pressure Ar/NH3 DBD and the increasing rate of the spectral line intensity is quicker in multi-pulse APGD than in filamentary discharge which is beneficial to synthesize ε-Fe3N ferroparticles.