Ion Cluster Formation by Nonthermal Plasma Induced by Pulse Corona Discharge Toward Indoor Air Cleaning

Abstract

During pulsed corona discharges, both negative and positive ions react with moisture to generated cluster ions. These cluster ions are considered to be useful for cleaning hazardous materials such as hazardous pollutants and allergen. In this paper, for such type of ions generation devices, numerical simulation is carried out on the cluster ions formation. The behavior of streamer evolution and cluster formations are simulated well, and it is clarified that the clustering progresses toward H3O+(H2O)4 and $\mathbf{O}_{2}^{-}(\mathbf{H}_{2}\mathbf{O})_{4}$ when the chemical species of $\mathrm{H}_{3}\mathrm{O}^{+}(\mathrm{H}_{2}\mathrm{O})_{n}$ and $\mathrm{O}_{2}^{-}(\mathrm{H}_{2}\mathrm{O})_{n}\ (n=0-5)$ are considered. Ions number densities obtained in the experiment are smaller than the calculated ones because some differences between the numerical model and experiment exit and the ions may be lost near in the path of the chamber.