Influence of electrode configuration on ozone synthesis and microdischarge property in dielectric barrier discharge reactor

Characteristics of a dielectric barrier discharge were investigated experimentally to clarify an influence of an electrode configuration on ozone synthesis and a microdischarge behavior. Three difference configurations: plane, trench and multipoint were employed as ground electrode. The alumina dielectric barrier coated plane electrode was used as a high-voltage electrode, to which a sinusoidal high-voltage was applied with 10 kHz frequency. Pure oxygen gas was fed into the reactor with gas flow rate of 5 L/min. The maximum yielding rate increased from 80 to 120 g/kWh by changing an electrode configuration from plane to multipoint, which has 528 number of a right-pyramid shape projection on a 6 cm x 22 cm plane electrode. The yielding rate was strongly dependent on a produced ozone concentration in the plane electrode case, whereas slightly depended on the concentration in the multipoint electrode case. The electrode configuration also affected a number of the microdischarges per one applied voltage cycle. The multipoint electrode showed the largest number of microdischarges at same input energy. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.