Surface Catalytic Effect of Electrode Materials on Ozone Dissociation in a Cylindrical Dielectric Barrier Discharge Ozonizer

The effect of electrode materials on ozone dissociation is studied by using the electrodes made of stainless steel, copper, and carbon in a coaxial cylindrical-type dielectric barrier discharge ozonizer. The gas and electrode surface temperatures as well as the ozone concentration generated in the ozonizer are measured with varying the applied pulse voltage. The results show that the surface temperature for a stainless steel electrode decreases sharply by more than 10°C as the discharge begins to generate ozone. This is explained reasonably by the dissociation of ozone at the catalytic stainless steel electrode surface, which takes away a large amount of heat from the electrode surface. The decrease of temperature for the less catalytic copper electrode is only about 3°C , and the temperature remains almost unchanged for the noncatalytic carbon electrode. Moreover, the ozone concentrations with the copper and carbon electrodes are approximately twice as high as that with the stainless steel electrode at the same voltage. This is attributed to a decrease in catalytic dissociation of ozone at the copper and carbon electrode surfaces, thus affecting the ozone yield.