Homogeneous dielectric barrier discharge in air for surface treatment

Dielectric barrier discharges in atmospheric pressure gas, especially in air, are usually made of a large number of filamentary micro-discharges, which may cause the ununiformity of the surface treatment. In this paper, a new method to obtain a homogeneous dielectric barrier discharge in air is proposed. The homogeneous discharge, which is of a nature in between those of the filamentary discharge and the glow discharge, is very efficient as a means of modifying the hydrophilicity of textile or non-woven and does not cause any damage to the specimen. The homogenous discharge occurs by using of a cylinder-plane electrode geometry. The electrical characteristics of the cylinder-plane dielectric barrier discharge were compared with those of a parallel-plate dielectric barrier discharge and a metallic cylinder-dielectric plane discharge. Compared to the parallel-plane dielectric barrier discharge and the metallic cylinder-dielectric plane discharge, the distribution of the current and temperature of the homogeneous discharge gap is more uniform. It is proved experimentally that the homogeneous discharge in ambient air is a promising surface treatment method for textile and non-woven.