Production of nitric/nitrous oxide by an atmospheric pressure plasma jet

Absolute densities of nitrous species were studied in an atmospheric pressure RF plasma jet. The measurement of NO and N2O densities has been performed mainly by means of ex situ quantum-cascade laser absorption spectroscopy via a multi-pass cell in Herriot configuration. The dependence of the species' production on individual parameters such as power, flow and oxygen, nitrogen and water admixture is shown. NO and N2O densities are found to increase with absorbed power, while an increase in the gas flow induces a decrease of these densities due to a reduction in residence time of the gas in the plasma. Actually, a change of these two parameters, absorbed power and gas flow, induces a variation of energy density. The higher energy density, the higher NO and N2O densities. The NO and N2O densities are strongly gas mixture dependent. A change of that parameter allows to choose between a NO-rich or a N2O-rich regime. NO and N2O densities increase as a function of the N2 admixture, while increasing oxygen, above a minimum value, reduces the densities of both NO and N2O. When adding water instead of oxygen to the gas mixture the reduction in the NO density is much less. For maximal NO and N2O formation a ratio of about He/N2/O2 = 99.5/0.36/0.07 is found to be the most efficient in the μ-APPJ. However, it was found that the absorbed power in the plasma always reduces with increasing admixtures. The validation of the results obtained with quantum-cascade absorption spectroscopy with mass spectrometry shows how the two measurement techniques can complement each other. Finally a comparison of our results and others works is presented.