Method of making a physically and chemically active...

Details Method of making a physically and chemically active... Method of making a physically and chemically active...

2000-11-09

2003-02-25

Wong, Don (Department: 2821)

Electric lamp and discharge devices: systems

Discharge device load with fluent material supply to the...

Plasma generating

C315S111410, C118S7230DC

Reexamination Certificate

active

06525481

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY
The invention concerns the method of making a physically and chemically active environment by means of a plasma jet which permits the transformation and the oriented transfer of electromagnetic energy in its different forms by means of a plasma, from the plasma jet to the treated object.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART
For making a physically and chemically active environment utilised for the treatment of objects or chemical compounds currently a broad spectrum of discharges generated in different ways on the basis of electromagnetic energy are used which in turn affect the activated medium or directly the treated objects.
From CZ 246982 a method of spatially oriented chemical activation of the working gas by plasma is known in the region between the jet attached via the adapting member to the source of high-frequency (hf) energy with a non-symmetric output and the earthed electrode attached to the second output of the above source. The use of the method is only limited to low pressures, a gaseous working medium and an external plasmatic environment.
From PV 03925-90.J CZ—priority Sept. 9, 1990 and WO 95/11322 modifications of the preceding mentioned method are known, characterised by the fact that the generation of the discharge activating the working gas passing through the jet takes place already inside the hollow electrode in the working regime of the so-called high-frequency hollow cathode. In WO 95/11322, as against PV 03925-90.J CZ, the in turns discharge and non-discharge operation regime is utilised for sputtering the material of the electrode, in PV 03925-90.J CZ a permanent magnet situated axially symmetrically outside the jet is used for orienting plasmochemical processes. These two methods are only limited to low pressures, a gaseous working medium and an external plasmatic environment.
According to WO 96/16531 the plasma is generated under low pressure in a gaseous working medium, by means of the so-called hf hollow cathode of linear geometry and plasmochemical processes are oriented by means of an additional magnetic field of other than axial symmetry from permanent magnets or electromagnets.
From SE 9302222-6 a modification of the preceding patents is known where the hollow electrode is fed from a microwave source.
The main drawback of the above methods and equipment for their performance is the fact that they are only limited to low pressures up to 10
2-3
Pa, a gaseous working medium and an external plasmatic environment.
From Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 33 (1994), L 197, a method of generating hf plasma under atmospheric pressure is known. In this case the hf. discharge is not generated in the electrode with a hollow geometry, but on a compact needle electrode inserted into the dielectric tube flown through only by the working medium in the gaseous state. The disadvantage of this method and equipment is the fact that the discharge is generated on the fill needle electrode, by which the plasmochemical processes of activating the streaming working medium are not so much effective as in the case of the discharge in the hollow electrode. It is applicable only in a medium formed by the gaseous phase, where the oriented reaction channel is formed, capable of activating a further object or the working medium.
In Plasma Sources Sci. Technol. 6, 1997, 468-477 a method is described of generating a high-pressure discharge of the type of a direct current hollow cathode in a gas without a flow through regime. The equipment consists of two electrodes, of which the cathode has a cavity with a cylindrical symmetry with the inner diameter of about 0.2 to 0.7 mm and which is separated from the anode immediately linking up with the cathode hollow by a layer of the dielectric material. It is thus not a plasma jet because only gas is used without the flow through regime. The equipment is not used for the activation or adaptation of any further activated working medium or object and the electrodes are fed only from a direct current source.
From CZ 282566 B6 and Proc. of 18
th
Symp. on Plasma Phys. and Technology, Prague, 1997, 144-146, a method is known of generating a volume corona discharge in water or in water with admixtures between the electrodes to which pulse voltage is applied, characterised by the fact that the intensity of the electric field in the proximity of at least one of the electrodes increases by a partial coverage of this electrode by a solid and/or gaseous dielectric, and on the surface of the electrode spots are formed of the contact of the electrode material, the solid and/or gaseous dielectric and/or water (the so-called “triple points” of different dielectric constants). The equipment for performing this kind consists of a big cylindrical metal reactor which is at the same time one electrode flown through slowly by the above liquid medium. The second rod-shaped electrode is placed longitudinally in the axis of that reactor. The method of generating the discharge can be carried out only in the aqueous medium. The equipment is voluminous and only works when using a very efficient pulse source of direct current electric energy (of the order of tens of MW in a pulse—Proc. of the 18
th
Symp. on Plasma Phys. and Technology, Prague, 1997, 144-146).
All these methods are closely connected with an actual and highly specific arrangement of plasma generating equipment and highly specific working conditions (working environment, medium, pressure, temperature, frequency of the excitation electromagnetic energy, power output of its source, etc.). The facilities used in practice are usually narrowly specialised, spacious and they require a closed room (e.g. vacuum facilities) or are highly requiring for energy consumption (e.g. plasmatrons—tens kW) or 15 for the method of discharge generation (such as a pulse corona—tens of kW to MW in a pulse). Hitherto no possibility has existed of targeted, space narrowly directed, sufficiently fine, but effective, superficial or small-volume adaptations of objects under higher pressures (particularly in free atmosphere or in a liquid medium), carried out by a single facility in the whole spectrum of frequencies of the source voltage.
SUBJECT MATTER OF THE INVENTION
The above drawbacks are removed by the method of generating a physically and chemically active environment by means of the plasma jet, according to the invention consisting in the fact that from at least one external source of performance of about 10
0
to 10
3
W and voltage amplitude of the order of 10
1
to 10
4
V with the possibility of its modulation at the frequency range of DC (ss), low frequency (nf), high frequency (hf) or microwaves (vhf) electromagnetic energy is conducted to at least one hollow electrode flown through by the stream of the working medium in which an electromagnetic field is formed in the longitudinal and/or transversal direction of the electrode cavity and/or its orifice, and at the same time free carriers of the charge are generated by the action of elements locally increasing the density of electromagnetic energy and collision processes of particles in the working medium and on the surface of the hollow electrode by which, inside tee electrode cavities or/and at its orifice and in the external medium an intense discharge is generated or a system of primary and filamentary discharges with their own internal streaming which are carried by the flowing through working medium which are gradually activated and thus formed plasma, together with the streaming and henceforth activating working medium flow through the hollow electrode and in the external medium at subsonic or supersonic speed with contemporaneous generation of a pointed reaction channel at the pressure of 10
3
to 10
6
Pa.
The transfer of electromagnetic energy into the discharge carried by the working medium is matched adapted.
The working medium and the external medium is a gas, a liquid or their mixtures or a mixture of solid particles with the gas, liquid or their mixtures.
The process of plasma generation and the activation of the working medium is advantageou

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