LIF spectroscopy applied to the study of non-thermal plasmas for atmospheric pollutant abatement

Non-thermal plasmas at atmospheric pressure are currently investigated for applications in flue gas cleaning for pollution control. Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF) brings an irreplaceable contribution to the study of atmospheric pollutant removal kinetics, and to the monitoring of key species involved in this non-equilibrium gas phase chemistry. This article gives an overview of LIF studies in discharges for pollution control, in particular recent results obtained on NO and OH radical using a time resolved LIF diagnostic coupled to a photo-triggered discharge. Such a discharge generates transient homogeneous plasma and allows useful comparison between experimental results and predictions from a self-consistent discharge and kinetic model.