Modelling the low-pressure N2-O2 plasma afterglow to determine the kinetic mechanisms controlling the UV emission intensity and its spatial distribution for achieving an efficient sterilization process

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2008

Authors

Kinga Kutasi (Author) Other; B Saoudi (Author) Other; Carlos Daniel Diogo Matias Pintassilgo (Author) FEUP; J. Loureiro (Author) Other; M Moisan (Author) Other

Journal

Title: Plasma Processes and Polymers

Vol. 5

Pages: 840-852

ISSN: 1612-8850

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Indexing

ISI Web of Science

Scientific classification

FOS: Natural sciences > Physical sciences

Other information

Abstract (EN): The flowing afterglow of a N2–O2 microwave discharge intended to provide intense and spatially uniform UV emission for an efficient inactivation of bacterial spores is modelled with a 3-D hydrodynamic model leading to the spatial density distribution of the species in the reactor. The agreement of the calculated densities of the NO(A) and NO(B) UV emitting species with the corresponding measured emission intensities strongly supports the choice of the kinetic reactions retained in the model. In that respect, the specific contribution of N and O atoms to the spatial distribution of the NO(A) density (generating the NOg system) in the late afterglow is, for the first time, brought into relief.

Language: Portuguese

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific