On OH production in water containing atmospheric pressure plasmas

In this paper radical production in atmospheric pressure water containing plasmas is discussed. As OH is often an important radical in these discharges the paper focuses on OH production. Besides nanosecond pulsed coronas and diffusive glow discharges, several other atmospheric pressure plasmas which are of interest nowadays have a typical electron temperature in the range 1-2 eV and an ionization degree of 10⁻⁵-10⁻⁴. These properties are quite different from the typical plasma properties known from low pressure gas discharges. In the plasma physics literature OH production is primarily ascribed to be due to electron, metastable induced or thermal dissociation of water, processes which are dominant in (low pressure) gas discharges and in combustion and hot flames. It is shown in this paper that for several atmospheric pressure plasmas also dissociative recombination can be an effective method of OH radical production. Several examples are presented in detail. This paper provides a basic framework for OH production in atmospheric pressure plasmas and shows that accurate knowledge of n_e, T_e, T_g, the dominant ionic species, radical and neutral species are indispensable to obtain a complete view on the chemical kinetics in these challenging complex atmospheric pressure plasmas. A few relevant plasma diagnostics together with their limitations are also briefly discussed in this context.