Plasma-enhanced N₂ fixation in a dielectric barrier discharge reactor: effect of packing materials

Abstract

The effect of Al2O3 and BaTiO3 packing on the plasma-enhanced NOx synthesis from air was investigated in a packed-bed dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactor. The discharge characteristics are significantly influenced by packing different materials into the discharge gap. Compared with the DBD without packing, the presence of Al2O3 or BaTiO3 beads in the discharge effectively enhanced the charge accumulation, average electric field, and mean electron energy, all of which contribute to the enhanced production of NOx. The lowest energy consumption of 15.9 MJ mol−1 for NOx production was achieved when placing BaTiO3 beads in the DBD, which can be attributed to the increased mean electron energy using the BaTiO3 packing, facilitating the formation of more N2 excited species in the reaction. These results suggest that choosing proper packing materials can effectively reduce the energy cost for plasma NOx synthesis using DBD.