Corona with Streamers in Atmospheric Pressure Air in a Highly Inhomogeneous Electric Field

The paper presents research data on positive and negative coronas inatmospheric pressure air in a highly inhomogeneous electric field. Thedata show that irrespective of the polarity of pointed electrodes placed ina high electric field (200 kV/cm), this type of discharge develops via ballstreamers even if the gap voltage rises slowly (0.2 kV/ms). The start voltageof first positive streamers, compared to negative ones, is higher andthe amplitude and the frequency of their current pulses are much lower:about two times and more than two orders of magnitude, respectively.The higher frequency of current pulses from negative streamers provideshigher average currents and larger luminous areas of negative coronascompared to positive ones. Positive and negative cylindrical streamersfrom a pointed to a plane electrode are detected and successive dischargetransitions at both polarities are identified.

Study on water treatment effect of dispersion discharge plasma based on flowing water film electrode

To improve the utilization rate of plasma active species,in this study,a closed non-uniform air gap is formed by a flowing water film electrode and a sawtooth insulating dielectric layer to realize the diffuse glow discharge in the atmosphere.Firstly,the electric field distribution characteristics of non-uniform air gap in the sawtooth dielectric layer are studied,and the influence of aspect ratio on the characteristics of diffuse discharge plasma is discussed.Subsequently,the effects of wire mesh,the inclination angle of the dielectric plate,and liquid inlet velocity on the flow characteristics of the water film electrode are analyzed.The results show that the non-uniform electric field distribution formed in the sawtooth groove can effectively inhibit the filamentous discharge,and the 1 mm flowing water film is directly used as the electrode,and high-active plasma is formed directly on the lower surface of the water film.In addition,a plasma flowing water treatment device is built to treat the methyl orange solution and observe its decolorization effect.The experimental results show that after 50 min of treatment,the decolorization rate of the methyl orange solution reaches 96%,which provides a new idea for industrial applications of wastewater treatment.

Reverse mode switching of the random laser emission in dye doped liquid crystals under homogeneous and inhomogeneous electric fields

We report the observation of electric field induced random lasing in a dye doped liquid crystal system. This was achieved by using a liquid crystal host with negative dielectric anisotropy doped with laser dye PM 597 in a 75 μm cell with a homeotropic alignment layer. In the absence of an applied field, only amplified spontaneous emission was observed since the liquid crystal orientation was uniform. However, application of a field resulted in a fieldinduced planar-like configuration with local nonuniformity in liquid crystal orientation. This led to random lasing in the energized state(voltage greater than a transition threshold). The onset of lasing occurs by application of either a spatially homogenous or a spatially inhomogeneous electric field across the liquid crystal. The characteristics of the emission spectra as a function of different(i) dye concentration and(ii) applied voltage were investigated using nanosecond pulsed laser excitation at 532 nm. The effects of using an inhomogeneous field were compared to the use of a homogenous field and reported. It is shown that the spatial configuration can be used to alter the emission spectra of the system. The work is used to suggest a new configuration, referred to here as"reverse mode," for liquid crystal-based random lasers. This new configuration may provide additional avenues for their use in commercial devices.

A fouling suppression system in submerged membrane bioreactors using dielectrophoretic forces

A novel method was developed to suppress membrane fouling in submerged membrane bioreactors. The method is based on the dielectrophoretic （DEP） motion of particles in an inhomogeneous electrical field. Using a real sample ofbiomass as feed, the fouling-suppression performance using DEP with different electrical field intensities （60-160 V） and different frequencies （50-1000 Hz） was investigated. The fouling-suppression performance was found to relate closely with the intensity and frequency of the electrical field. A stronger electrical field was found to better recover the filtrate flux. This is because of a stronger DEP force acting on the biomass par[ides close to the membrane＇s surface. Above an intensity and frequency value of 130 V and 1 kHz, respectively the permeate flux was reduced due to an electrothermal effect.