AbstractsEngineering

This thesis presents the characteristics of an atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) that was used for surface chemistry at the University of Maryland. Recently, APPJs have gained popularity in the medical field to decontaminate surfaces, heal wounds, and cancer treatment. The motivation for this study is that many APPJs lack NO measurements. Characteristics done on this jet include charge-voltage (QV) measurements, time resolved spectroscopy, optical emission spectroscopy (OES) and NO-PLIF. QV measurements were done in order to find the energy of the plasma throughout the jet which was on the order of magnitude of 10-4-10-5 Joules/period. The time resolved spectroscopy showed that the plume of the plasma changes with time. The use of optical emission spectroscopy revealed that oxygen, nitrogen and NO were present in the plasma even if there was none being pumped through the jet. NO number density was calculated from taking PLIF measurements. It was found that helium mixtures create more NO than the argon mixtures.