Behaviour of dielectric barrier discharges with nanoparticles-coated dielectrics

Electrifying the chemical industry is a necessity towards a more sustainable future. A potential approach to achieve this ambitious goal, is the use of plasma catalysis. Herein, a plasma is generated by applying a high voltage to generate a discharge in the gas mixture of interest. In the same volume, catalysts can be packed to optimize the overall process. However, up till now, these processes don’t perform efficient enough to be able to apply them at an industrial scale. This is in part due to a lack of understanding of the fundamental underlying physical processes. When introducing catalytic materials to this discharge gap, numerous physical properties change, potentially drastically altering the plasma discharge. This plasma discharge in turn seems to have a significant impact on the overall chemistry taking place. In order to be able to optimize such systems, we aim at furthering our understanding of the interaction between metal particles and the overall plasma discharge. By combining the complementary expertise of the home and host institution, we believe we are able to obtain these new insights, benefiting the people involved, but also the lab and institution where this research is taking place.

Faculty Supervisor:

Sylvain Coulombe

Student:

Partner:

University of Antwerp

Discipline:

Physics

Sector:

Education

University:

McGill University

Program: