Quantitative Measurement of NO Produced from Copper Surface Catalysis in Air Plasma

Spatially resolved laser-spectroscopic measurements of nitric oxide molecules formed from surface-catalyzed recombination in air plasma flowing over polished copper have recently been obtained in the 30 kW Inductively Coupled Plasma Torch Facility at the University of Vermont. A newly developed calibration procedure to convert plasma molecular species measurements into absolute number densities has been applied. These measurements provide important information about the plasma state in the boundary layer and the amount of catalytic recombination energy deposited on the surface in air plasma.