PROCESSES OF TRANSFER IN A LOW-TEMPERATURE PLASMA

COMPARISON OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A PLASMA GENERATED 
BY A D.C. ARC PLASMATRON AND A HIGH-VOLTAGE A.C. PLASMATRON 
WITH RAIL-SHAPED ELECTRODES (GLIDING ARC) AS APPLIED TO
THE SYNTHESIS OF CARBON NANOMATERIALS

A. F. Bublievskii, A. A. Galinovskii, A. V. Gorbunov,
S. A. Zhdanok, V. A. Koval', L. I. Sharakhovskii,
G. V. Dolgolenko, and D. S. Skomorokhov

UDC 531.4:533.9:536.45

Comparative results of investigating the parameters of 
plasmas generated by atmospheric-pressure electric-arc plasmatrons 
of two types operating in the regime of simultaneous partial oxidation 
of hydrocarbons and their pyrolysis, have been given. It has been 
established by spectral and thermophysical measurements that the component 
composition of the plasma and its thermal characteristics at exit 
from a d.c. plasmatron significantly differ from the parameters of 
a plasmatron of the second type - an a.c. plasmatron with rail-shaped 
electrodes of the gliding-arc type. The temperature nonequilibrium 
and the presence of the carbon dimers C2 in the 
plasma (in the absence of the monomer C) generated by the rail-shaped-electrode 
plasmatron point to the fact that realization of the synthesis of 
fullerene-containing particles and, probably, particles containing 
nanotubes is, in principle, possible in reactors based on it, just 
as in more energy-intensive reactors with low-voltage d.c. arc plasmatrons.

A. V. Luikov Heat and Mass Transfer Institute, National 
Academy of Sciences of Belarus, 15 P. Brovka Str., Minsk, 220072, 
Belarus. Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 79, 
No. 4, pp. 3-11, July-August, 2006. Original article submitted 
September 20, 2005.