Investigations of Hydrocarbon Contamination in Ozone Generators

Residual amounts of methane (CH$_{4})$ and other trace hydrocarbons in the feed gas of dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) ozone generators have been observed to be a very harmful contaminant in ozone formation. This research aimed to better understand the physical and chemical mechanisms involved in the hydrocarbon contamination of the ozone producing microplasmas. Previous observations of similar hydrocarbons and other trace impurities such as H$_{2}$ or NO$_{x}$ mixed with the feed gas have shown similar degradation effects in ozone formation. Some of these processes caused catalytically enhanced recombination of O atoms, while other impurities lead to different ozone destruction cycles. In this work, both theoretical and experimental methods were used to elucidate the damaging effects of hydrocarbon corruption.