Liu Zhongwei

Measurement of OH Radicals in Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasmas by Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy

Near-infrared continuous wave cavity ring-down spectroscopy was applied to measure the OH radicals in dielectric barrier discharge plasmas, which play an important role in combustion systems, atmospheric chemistry and the removal of air pollutants by non-thermal plasmas. The P-branches of OH X2∏i ν″ = 2 ← ν″ = 0) bands were used for number density measurements. The OH number density and plasma temperature were determined for different applied voltages, gas pressures and concentrations of both oxygen and water. The temporal evolution of the OH number density was obtained by using the “time window method, which was used to extract individual ring-down times at different times in a half period of the sine wave applied voltage in dielectric barrier discharge plasmas.

Plasma Modified Polypropylene Membranes as the Lithium-Ion Battery Separators*

To reduce the thermal shrinkage of the polymeric separators and improve the safety of the Li-ion batteries, plasma treatment and plasma enhanced vapor chemical deposition (PECVD) of SiOx-like are carried out on polypropylene (PP) separators, respectively. Critical parameters for separator properties, such as the thermal shrinkage rate, porosity, wettability, and mechanical strength, are evaluated on the plasma treated PP membranes. O2 plasma treatment is found to remarkably improve the wettability, porosity and electrolyte uptake. PECVD SiOx-like coatings are found to be able to effectively reduce the thermal shrinkage rate of the membranes and increase the ionic conductivity. The electrolyte-philicity of the SiOx-like coating surface can be tuned by the varying O2 content in the gas mixture during the deposition. Though still acceptable, the mechanical strength is reduced after PECVD, which is due to the plasma etching.

Electron Cyclotron Resonance Plasma-Assisted Atomic Layer Deposition of Amorphous Al2O3 Thin Films

Without extra heating, Al2O3 thin films were deposited on a hydrogen-terminated Si substrate etched in hydrofluoric acid by using a self-built electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma-assisted atomic layer deposition (ALD) device with Al(CH3)3 (trimethylaluminum; TMA) and O2 used as precursor and oxidant, respectively. During the deposition process, Ar was introduced as a carrier and purging gas. The chemical composition and microstructure of the as-deposited Al2O3 films were characterized by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), an X-ray photoelectric spectroscope (XPS), a scanning electron microscope (SEM), an atomic force microscope (AFM) and a high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM). It achieved a growth rate of 0.24?nm/cycle, which is much higher than that deposited by thermal ALD. It was found that the smooth surface thin film was amorphous alumina, and an interfacial layer formed with a thickness of ca. 2 nm was observed between the Al2O3 film and substrate Si by HRTEM. We conclude that ECR plasma-assisted ALD can grow Al2O3 films with an excellent quality at a high growth rate at ambient temperature.

Kinetic Migration of Diethylhexyl Phthalate in Functional PVC Films

Plasticizers that are generally used in plastics to produce flexible food packaging materials have proved to cause reproductive system problems and womens infertility. A long-term consumption may even cause cancer diseases. Hence a nano-scale layer, named as functional barrier layer, was deposited on the plastic surface to prevent plasticizer diethylhexyl phthalates (DEHP) migration from plastics to foods. The feasibility of functional barrier layer i.e. SiOx coating through plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) process was then described in this paper. We used Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) to analyze the chemical composition of coatings, scanning electron microscope (SEM) to explore the topography of the coating surfaces, surface profilemeter to measure thickness of coatings, and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to evaluate the barrier properties of coatings. The results have clearly shown that the coatings can perfectly block the migration of the DEHP from plastics to their containers. It is also concluded that process parameters significantly influence the block efficiency of the coatings. When the deposition conditions of SiOx coatings were optimized, i.e. 50 W of the discharge power, 4:1 of ratio of O2: HMDSO, and ca.100 nm thickness of SiOx, 71.2% of the DEHP was effectively blocked.

Restraint Effect of Filaments on Applied Voltage in Atmospheric Pressure Glow Discharge

In this study, argon and nitrogen were used as the discharge gases in radio-frequency (RF: 13.56 MHz) powered dielectric barrier atmospheric plasma. It was noticed that in single dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) with nitrogen as the discharge gas, or in argon plasma with a high applied power, micro-filament channels were easily formed. The channels in these two kinds of discharge were both constrictive on the bare metallic electrode and expansive on the opposite electrode covered with a quartz layer. The number of micro-channels was increased along with the input power, which caused the change in the I?V curve shape, i.e., the current kept increasing and the voltage fluctuated within a confined range. With double dielectric layers, however, no micro-channels appeared in the ICCD images, and the I?V curve demonstrated a totally different shape. It was assumed that micro-filaments exhibited a restraining effect on the discharge voltage. The mechanism of this restraining effect was explored in this work.

Characteristics and properties of metal aluminum thin films prepared by electron cyclotron resonance plasma-assisted atomic layer deposition technology

Metal aluminum (Al) thin films are prepared by 2450 MHz electron cyclotron resonance plasma-assisted atomic layer deposition on glass and p-Si substrates using trimethylaluminum as the precursor and hydrogen as the reductive gas. We focus our attention on the plasma source for the thin-film preparation and annealing of the as-deposited films relative to the surface square resistivity. The square resistivity of as-deposited Al films is greatly reduced after annealing and almost reaches the value of bulk metal. Through chemical and structural analysis, we conclude that the square resistivity is determined by neither the contaminant concentration nor the surface morphology, but by both the crystallinity and crystal size in this process.

Measurement of the O2 Dissociation Fraction in RF Low Pressure O2/Ar Plasma Using Optical Emission Spectrometry

Measurement of the oxygen dissociation fraction in RF low pressure oxygen/argon plasma using optical emission spectrometry is presented. The oxygen dissociation fraction and its evolutions as functions of operational parameters were determined using argon as the actinometer. At a pressure of 30 Pa, the oxygen dissociation fraction decreased from 13.4% to 9.5% as the input power increased from 10 W to 70 W. At an input power of 50 W, the oxygen dissociation fraction decreased from 12.3% to 7.7% when the gas pressure increased from 10 Pa to 40 Pa. The influences of operational parameters on the generation of atomic oxygen were also discussed.

Atmospheric Pressure Radio Frequency Dielectric Barrier Discharges in Nitrogen/Argon

This work reports the experimental results on the characteristics of radio frequency dielectric barrier N2/Ar discharges. Depending on the nitrogen content in the feed gas and the input power, the discharge can operate in two different modes: a homogeneous glow discharge and a constricted discharge. With increasing input power, the number of discharge columns increases. The discharge columns have starlike structures and exhibit symmetric self-organized arrangement. Optical emission spectroscopy was performed to estimate the plasma temperature. Spatially resolved gas temperature measurements, determined from NO emission rotational spectroscopy were taken across the 4.4 mm gap filled by the discharge. Gas temperature in the middle of the gas gap is lower than that close to the electrodes.

Numerical Simulation of·OH and HO 2 · Radicals in Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasmas

在介质阻挡放电等离子体N2／O2／H2O／HCHO体系中通过解Boltzmann方程，得到电子能量分布函数，利用得到的电子能量分布函数计算电子。分子碰撞反应速率常数。然后把有关的反应速率常数带入速率方程，计算得到该体系在介质阻挡放电时，·OH、HO2·和电子的浓度随时间的演变以及·OH、HO2·浓度随H2O、O2摩尔分数的变化，并将模拟结果与实验值进行了对比，两者符合得较好。Electron energy distribution functions for N2/O2/H2O/HCHO dielectric barrier discharge plasma were obtained by numerically solving the Boltzmann equation. The electron-molecule reaction constants were calculated using the computed electron energy distribution function. A space averaged chemical kinetics model in dielectric barrier discharge was reported. The evolution of ·OH, HO2· and electron as functions of time were studied. The influences of H2O and O2 molar ratios on the generations of ·OH and HO2· were also discussed. The calculated results were in good agreement with our experiments result.