Electron-impact dissociation of molecular nitrogen in atmospheric-pressure nonthermal plasma reactors

This letter presents measurements of the specific energy consumption (eV per molecule) for electron-impact dissociation of N2 (e+N2→e+N+N) in a pulsed corona and an electron beam reactor. Measurements were done using 100 pm of NO in N2. In this mixture the removal of NO is dominated by the reduction reaction N+NO→N2+O. By measuring the specific energy consumption for reduction of NO, these experiments provide a good measure of the specific energy consumption for electron-impact dissociation of N2. The specific energy consumption using pulsed corona processing is 480 eV per dissociated N2 molecule. For electron beam processing, the specific energy consumption is 80 eV per dissociated N2 molecule. copyright 1995 American Institute of Physics