Hydrogen peroxide synthesis in a cold atmospheric dielectric barrier microdischarge

Non equilibrium cold atmospheric pressure plasmas can be used to produce a wide array of reactive species. In this work, a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactor has been investigated on its efficiency producing hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) with helium/water vapour and argon/water vapour admixes. The goal is to understand the relation of basic discharge parameters to H2O2 production efficiency. In addition to water vapour content, carrier gas, total gas flow and dissipated plasma power, the setup presented in this work allows for changing the gap size and electrode length. The variation of these parameters to investigate their effects on discharge chemistry led to a maximum production efficiency of 1.4 g/kWh, covering one order of magnitude in energy efficiency from 0.1 g/kWh over the full range of parameters varied here. The gap size and the residence time seem to have significant influence on H2O2 production and the energy efficiency.