Kinetics of iodine dissociation in oxygen containing electrodischarge plasma

Results of experimental study and numerical simulation of kinetics of iodine dissociation in plasma of a volumetric independent discharge in the mixture O2:Ar:I2 at increased pressure are presented. It is shown that the well-studied mechanism of dissociation, based on excitation of iodine molecules in consecutive collisions with singlet oxygen and excited iodine atoms, at sufficient enough concentrations of atomic oxygen and ozone is replaced by essentially different mechanism related to the production and destruction of IO radicals. It is also shown that the part of iodine in the mixture, when it does not exceed ∼10-3, results in a rapid destruction of ozone molecules and the part of energy contribution to the discharge spent on the formation of singlet oxygen does not exceed 18%