Non-Equilibrium Air Plasmas at Atmospheric Pressure

There has been considerable interest in recent years in finding methods to efficiently generate large volumes of atmospheric pressure air plasmas at modest temperatures below 2000 K with electron number densities of the order of 1013 cm-3. These reactive air plasmas have numerous applications based on their medical, biological, environmental, electromagnetic, and aerodynamic effects. There is considerable industrial interest in air plasmas for the benefits it can offer to existing and potential new processes as they do not require a vacuum enclosure and or additional feed gases. This book reviews recent advances in the generation and maintenance of atmospheric-pressure plasmas with a special emphasis on plasmas in ambient air and their applications.
The book provides a state-of-the-art summary of methods to generate and sustain atmospheric-pressure plasmas in air, diagnose and characterize the plasmas in terms of electron temperature, electron energy distribution functions, electron density, neutral and ion temperatures and energy distribution functions, elucidate the electron kinetics and the key plasma chemical reaction processes in these plasmas, highlight the latest development in modeling and simulation, and point to the most promising current and future technological applications of atmospheric-pressure air plasmas. The book will cover results of work that has been in the forefront of research and development in the United States and elsewhere over the last few years, and will be critical reading for graduate students and researchers in industry and academia. Furthermore, since this is a technical field of international interest, it is anticipated that there will be a significant international audience for this book, particularly in Europe, Japan, and Korea.

Author Biography

K.H. Becker, U. Kogelschatz, K.H. Schoenbach, R.J. Barker