Continuous corona discharge using nanowires

Continuous corona discharge under hundred volts is realized using ZnO nanowires as anode tips of a micro discharger. ZnO nanowires are synthesized using electric-field-assisted wet chemical method and a thin tungsten film is deposited on them to enhance their conductivities and discharging performances. The testing results of the corona discharge show that the corona inception voltage using nanowires was reduced greatly compared to conventional dischargers as a result of the local field-enhancement by nanowires. The critical voltage obtained in our experiment is smaller than 650V when the gap distance between the anode and the cathode is 50μm. The corona can be continuously happening in the experiments. The ion concentration in the corona discharge exceeds 10¹⁸/m³ orders of magnitude, which is practicable for most of applications, such as aerosol measurements.