Research team
Expertise
My research expertise covers the following subdomains of physics and chemistry: - physics of liquid matter (liquid structure, equilibrium and non-equilibrium thermodynamics) - physics of phase transitions - physics of the gas-liquid interface - plasma-liquid interaction - plasma-solid interaction (plasma etching) - plasma formation in the liquid phase - dense plasmas - gas chemistry of plasmas - advanced oxidation technology - LC-MS analysis
Towards a fundamental understanding of electrical discharges in and in contact with water.
Abstract
Electrical discharges in contact with water are under intensive investigation for many possible and established implementations in environmental, chemical and biomedical applications. The fundamental mechanisms of plasma-water interaction are, however, still poorly understood. For instance, the initiation mechanism of electrical discharges directly into the water phase is a topic under debate. Next to that, there is no generally accepted theory on the self-sustainment mechanism of a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) in contact with a water cathode. For that reason, this project is intended to obtain more fundamental insight in the underlying mechanisms of both plasma initiation in water and DBD in contact with water, by means of extensive modeling, validated by experiments. First, I will study the plasma-induced gas phase and water phase chemistry of both systems by means of 0D kinetics models. Next, I will include the 0D models into 1D and 2D COMSOL models for a more comprehensive simulation of the temporal and spatial plasma evolution. I will experimentally validate these models by means of various plasma diagnostic methods. Additionally, I aim to reveal new information on the investigated mechanisms with the experiments alone, by investigating the effect of the liquid content and voltage characteristics.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Bogaerts Annemie
- Fellow: Vanraes Patrick
Research team(s)
Project website
Project type(s)
- Research Project