Computational study of a pulsed dielectric barrier discharge for enhanced RONS generation

Abstract Cold atmospheric pressure plasmas are increasingly used in plasma medicine for their ability to generate reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) with therapeutic potential. However, the mechanisms driving RONS formation in the gas phase, which govern the therapeutic capacity of plasma, remain incompletely understood. To address this, we present a one-dimensional model of a pulsed dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) operating in air at atmospheric pressure, as often used in plasma medicine. The discharge is driven by multiple pulses with 27 kV amplitude and 2 µ s width, based on experiments. We constructed an extensive chemistry set of 52 species and 591 reactions. We varied the pulse shape and the permittivity of the dielectric, to study their effect on the electric current and electron density, which in turn influence both the amount and the nature of reactive species formed. Our results highlight the critical role of electronically excited species in RONS formation during the pulse, and demonstrate that increasing the dielectric permittivity can significantly enhance RONS concentrations, while the effect of the pulse shape is limited. This work offers direct insights for experimentalists in plasma medicine, seeking to optimize DBD configurations via in silico screening for targeted RONS generation.