Ambient pressure microplasmas for the direct synthesis of Hydrogen Peroxide in the gas phase

In this work, a plasma generates hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) to be used for the insitu epoxidation of propene to propene oxide, a major bulk material in the chemical industry. Microplasmas can improve the overall cost-effectiveness of an industrial production process and are especially suitable for explosive gas mixtures. We aim to design an efficient and stable low temperature gas discharge for producing hydrogen peroxide from either water or hydrogen oxygen mixtures (potentially with added inert gases) and investigate the efficiency of both approaches in terms of product yield. As H2O2 easily dissociates thermally it is essential to work close to room temperature. Various groups have already successfully used electrical discharges for producing hydrogen peroxide, however mostly in a liquid environment. In the course of the planned work we compare the H2O2 production in a parallel plate capacitive coupled RF discharge and a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD), both operating at ambient pressures and close to room temperatures. The product yield will be determined by spectro-photometric measurements of the reaction compounds of H2O2 after dissolving the gas flow in water. In lack of a thorough and consistent model for a humid gas discharge we are developing a model for the chemical kinetics of a humid discharge in order understand the production process and to maximize H2O2 yield as well as estimating operational parameters of the discharge.