CO2 Dissociation in Barrier Corona Discharges: Effect of Elevated Pressures in CO2/Ar Mixtures

The formation of carbon monoxide, oxygen and ozone in a barrier corona discharge (BCD) operating in pure carbon dioxide (CO₂) and binary mixtures of CO₂ and argon is studied. The asymmetric electrode configuration of the BCDs allows plasma operation at pressures exceeding 1 atm, up to 6 bar, at moderate high-voltage amplitudes below 15 kV. Charge–voltage plots and an equivalent circuit model are employed to characterize the electrical parameters at different pressures and gas compositions. Depending on these conditions and the voltage amplitude, full or partial coverage of the electrodes with plasma is obtained. The existence of an optimum pressure for power dissipation for each given operation voltage amplitude and gas composition can be confirmed and explained by the equivalent circuit model. Increasing the CO₂ concentration in the working gas increases the mean reduced electric field strength E/N while pressure reduces it in the BCD. The CO₂ conversion shows a maximum efficiency of about 4% at 1.5 bar for the gas mixture Ar/CO₂ = 1:1 and a voltage amplitude of about 10 kV. The calculation of thermodynamic equilibrium parameters reveals that a relatively small increase in pressure can affect both, the equilibrium parameters and the reaction rates. As a result, the specific required energy for the reaction (\(\Delta \mathrm{H}/\mathrm{SEI}\)) shows an optimum, but only 8% of the electrical input energy is spent for CO₂ dissociation at these optimum conditions.