An experimental study of hydrogen production by dissociation of water vapor in a radio frequency plasma source

This experiment investigates a novel technique of hydrogen production by dissociating water molecules in a radio-frequency (rf) plasma. This plasma source has a helicon antenna, capable of operating in capacitive, inductive, or helicon mode when operating conditions match those required to excite these modes. Hydrogen is produced by injecting water vapor into the plasma source. The species identified in the plasma from data obtained via a residual gas analyze are hydrogen, oxygen, water, hydroxyl, and nitrogen. Partial pressures of these gases are also obtained from the residual gas analyzer. In this paper, we show that this plasma source is capable of dissociating water molecules into their constituent species when operating in inductive mode.