Effects of water addition on OH radical generation and plasma properties in an atmospheric argon microwave plasma jet
Water vapor was added to the feeding gas of a continuous atmospheric argon (Ar) microwave plasma jet to study its influence on plasma shape, plasma gas temperature, and OH radical concentrations. The plasma jet was created by a 2.45 GHz microwave plasma source operating at constant power of 104 W with H{sub 2}O-Ar mixture flow rate of 1.7 standard liter per minute (slm). With an increase in the H{sub 2}O/Ar ratio from 0.0 to 1.9%, the plasma jet column length decreased from 11 mm to 4 mm, and the plasma jet became unstable when the ratio was higher than 1.9%; elevation of plasma gas temperature up to 330 K was observed in the plasma temperature range of 420-910 K. Optical emission spectroscopy showed that the dominant plasma emissions changed from N{sub 2} in the pure Ar plasma jet to OH with the addition of water vapor, and simulations of emission spectra suggested non-Boltzmann distribution of the rotational levels in the OH A-state (v'=0). Spatially resolved absolute OH number densities along the plasma jet axis were measured using UV cavity ringdown spectroscopy of the OH (A-X) (0-0) band in the H{sub 2}O/Ar ratio range of 0.0-1.9%. The highest OH number density is consistently located in the vicinity of the plasma jet tip, regardless of the H{sub 2}O/Ar ratio. OH number density in the post-tip region follows approximately an exponential decay along the jet axis with the fastest decay constant of 3.0 mm in the H{sub 2}O/Ar ratio of 1.5%. Given the low gas temperature of 420-910 K and low electron temperature of 0.5-5 eV along the jet axis, formation of the OH radical is predominantly due to electron impact induced dissociation of H{sub 2}O and dissociative recombination of H{sub 2}O{sup +} resulting from the Penning ionization process.