Chemical kinetics simulations of an atmospheric pressure plasma device in air

The present research concerns the theoretical analysis of an air atmospheric pressure discharge in a streamer regime in order to predict the evolution of the gas-phase chemical composition. Detailed modeling of the discharge development and evolution leads to the identification of a suitable scheme for chemical kinetics simulations. Such scheme has been exploited with the implementation of suitable numerical models of the chemical kinetics considering actually existing devices (DC discharges in point-plane, point to point or coaxial cylinder configuration, dielectric barrier discharges) and used to study the evolution of the discharge composition. As a first application we have chosen to simulate the chemical kinetics induced in a single isolated streamer and the results of this approach are examined within this paper. The interplay between different time scale processes is shown. The model allows also to investigate the dependence of chemical species density as a function of input parameters depending on actual discharge parameters. Many of our observations are directly relevant for a better understanding of the operating conditions during atmospheric pressure plasma processing.