Modeling of the production of OH and O radicals in a positive pulsed corona discharge plasma

A mathematical model was applied to describe the behavior of OH and O radicals in positive pulsed corona discharge of N2–H2O mixture gas. The model takes into account the generation and disappearance of radials in a pulsed corona discharge reactor by a single pulse or continuous pulses. Their concentrations were derived by considering direct electron effect on the dissociation of gaseous molecules (O2, N2, H2O) and subsequent excitation transfer reaction of excited oxygen atoms to produce OH radicals. The equations promoted could be solved numerically with the FORTRAN subroutine Treanor. So as to establish the validity of the model simulation, the calculated results were compared with the experimental data. Although there is some discrepancy between the calculation and experiment, the total trend is coincident.