Quantitative behavior of vibrational excitation in AC plasma assisted dry reforming of methane

Quantitative behavior of non-equilibrium excitation by direct electron impact in low-temperature dry reforming of methane was investigated by integrated studies of experimental validation and kinetic modeling.A plasma chemistry kinetic mechanism incorporating the reactions involving vibrational excitation of CH4,CO2,H2 and CO molecules as well as the low temperature He/CH4/CO2 conversion pathways was developed and validated.The calculation results showed that at lower E/N values(<150 Td)large population of energized electrons generated in a He/CH4/CO2 discharge resulted in an intensification of vibrational excitation.Despite the large generation of vibration,the vibrationally excited molecules in a 0.5/0.25/0.25 of He/CH4/CO2 discharge mixture were easy to relax,due to the strong coupling of the vibration of different molecules in a gas mixture.The results showed that the moderate levels of the vibrational excitation,such as CO2(v10,11,...,18)and CO(v9,10),presented most efficient in the stimulation of species generation including CO,CH2 O,CH3 OH,C2 H4 and C2 H6.Specifically,under conditions of E/N of 108 Td,14.9%of CO formation was estimated from the recombination of CO2(v)with CH3 and H,CO2(v)+CH3→CH3 O+CO,CO2(v)+H→CO+OH.Also,4.8%of C2 H4 formation was from the recombination reaction CH4(v)+CH→C2 H4+H.These results highlight the strong roles of vibrational states in a complex plasma chemistry system.

Sweat detection theory and fluid driven methods: A review

In recent years, analyses of sweat have become more popular since it doesn't require invasive sampling procedures. Although blood still remains the golden standards in clinical, analyses of other common body fluids,such as sweat, have become increasingly important. Because the compositions of sweat and blood are osmotically related, the content of certain metabolites in sweat can directly reflect the disease. Sweat detection can be used as an alternative to blood detection and allows continuous monitoring. Increased development of wearable sensors makes it possible for continuous sweat detection. Here, this paper gave a review about the sweat detection methods, such as fluorescence sensing, electrochemical sensing and colorimetric sensing. The advantages and disadvantages of each method and their developing trend in sweat detection were summarized. Then, for the problem of continuous sweat sampling, three methods(capillary force, hydrogel osmotic pump, evaporationdriven micropump) were introduced through different structures of microfluidic chip, and the level of sweat collection and transport achieved by related research was demonstrated. This review aims to provide guidance for future research in sweat detection and stimulate further interest in continuous monitoring of sweat using microfluidic chip.

Kinetic roles of vibrational excitation in RF plasma assisted methane pyrolysis

A combined experimental and simulational work was carried out in this paper to investigate the kinetic effects of non-equilibrium excitation by direct electron impact on low temperature pyrolysis of CH4 in a RF dielectric barrier discharge.Special attention was placed on the vibrational chemistry of CH4 and some other important products including H2,C2H2,C2H4,C2H6 and C3H8 largely produced in CH4/He discharge under an intermediate reduced electric field ranging 51-80 Td.A detailed kinetic mechanism incorporating a set of electron impact reactions,electron-ion recombination reactions,negative ions attachment reactions,charge exchange reactions,reactions involving vibrationally excited molecules and the relaxation process of vibrationally excited species was assembled and experimentally validated.The modeling results showed a reasonable agreement with the experimentally measured results in terms of CH4 conversion and products production including C2 hydrocarbons and hydrogen.A linear increasing trend of methane conversion with increasing plasma power input was discovered,which suggested a strong dependence of molecular excitation on energy input.Both the CH4/He mole ratio and the reactor temperature play significant roles in CH4 conversion and major products production.The experimental results showed that the selectivity of value-added products C2H4 and H2 keeps essentially unchanged with increasing energy input,mostly because the contribution CH4 ionization and He excitation effectively compete with vibrational excitation and dissociation of CH4 molecule with the E/N value increasing.The calculated results showed that the typical relaxation time of vibrational states is comparable to the gas-kinetics time in a CH4/He discharge mixture,thus the vibrationally excited molecules can significantly accelerate chemical reactions through an effective decrease of activation energy.The path flux analysis revealed that the vibrationally excited molecules CH4(v)and H2(v)enhanced chain propagation reactions,such as CH4(v)+H→CH3+H2,CH4(v)+CH→C2 H4+H,and H2(v)+C→CH+H,further stimulating the production of active radicals and final products.Specifically,H2(v)+C→CH+H was responsible for 7.9%of CH radical formation and CH4(v)+CH→C2 H4+H accounted for 31.4%of total C2 H4 production.This kinetic study provides new sights in demonstrating the contribution of vibrationally excited molecules in RF plasma assisted methane pyrolysis.

Kinetic contribution of CO_2/O_2 additive in methane conversion activated by non-equilibrium plasmas

A temperature-controlled and pressure-controlled coaxial dielectric barrier discharge(DBD) reactor was developed to decouple the thermal and kinetic effects of radio frequency(RF) discharge on methane conversion,and further to compare the kinetic behaviors of the mechanistically similar reactions of methane conversion with O_2 and CO_2 additives. A kinetic mechanism for RF plasma assisted methane conversion was assembled. The formation of products in the RF plasma reactor was measured with Gas Chromatography(GC–TCD) and the data were used to validate the kinetic model. The experimental and computational results showed the different kinetic roles of carbon dioxide and oxygen additives in methane conversion, due to the different dissociation and ionization energy of the two additive gases, as well as the thus produced electron energy distribution function(EEDF). Fuel oxidation by plasma generated O, O(~1 D), O_2(a^1Δg), O_2(b^1Σ_g^+) and O+in partial oxidation of methane was observed essential for methane consumption, which resulted in an increase in methane conversion rate,compared to pure methane pyrolysis and dry reforming of methane with CO_2 additive. It was also found that dry reforming of methane with CO_2 was by far the easier to produce the syngas as well as C_2 hydrocarbon species,due to the weak oxidation ability of CO_2 and also the significant deposition of the electron energy on CH_4 dissociation in a dry reforming discharge mixture. This kinetic study produced comparative data to demonstrate the contribution of CO_2/O_2 additive in non-equilibrium plasma assisted methane conversion.