Enhanced volume discharge plasma excited by a negative pulse biased dielectric barrier discharge reactor

Abstract A novel negative pulse biased dielectric barrier discharge (PB-DBD) reactor was proposed, comprising a surface DBD (S-DBD) reactor excited by AC voltage and a bias electrode excited by negative pulse voltage. The presence of the S-DBD plasma reduces the negative pulse voltage amplitude required to initiate volume discharge and enables stable operation even under low-power conditions. Toluene degradation experiments further demonstrate that the PB-DBD plasma achieved markedly higher degradation efficiency ( DE ) than the S-DBD plasma. The DE was also increased by approximately 9%, compared with the AC-excited volume DBD plasma at a specific input energy of 350 J L −1 . Toluene degradation experiments in the PB-DBD reactor at different negative pulse frequencies showed that when the ratio of the negative pulse frequency to the AC frequency was 1:2 or 1:1, pronounced dips were observed in the curves of total discharge power, DE , carbon balance, CO 2 selectivity, and gas temperature.