Materials processing at atmospheric pressure: Nonequilibrium effects on nanotechnology and mega-industries

Abstract

Applications of atmospheric pressure nonequilibrium plasmas, because of their special advantages of forming reactive plasmas in a simple reactor, are spreading into various engineering fields, not only of materials processing, but also into energy and environment areas. Our group has explored new applications of both filamentary and diffuse barrier discharges, including the establishment of appropriate modeling, which enables better optimization of given plasma processes. More recently, microplasmas produced in submillimeter to micrometer reactors are also highlighted in association with atmospheric pressure non-equilibrium plasma because such small-scale plasmas frequently require high-density media to produce. This paper overviews our recent projects: (1) steam reforming of methane using filamentary barrier discharge; (2) deposition of carbon nanotubes in atmospheric pressure radio frequency discharge (APRFD); and (3) synthesis of silicon nanoparticles using microplasma. © 2006 IUPAC.