Determination of equilibrium composition of C _x H _y O _z N _t plasmas out of thermodynamic equilibrium

Abstract:

In this paper, we determine the composition of C_xH_yO_zN_t plasmas out of thermodynamic equilibrium using a more rigorous thermodynamic derivation of the Saha equation modified to two-temperature plasma system proposed by Chen et al. The calculation is made for these plasmas in pressure range 0.1-1 MPa and for electron temperature range 5 000-30 000 K. A great attention is given to the evolution of the major species such as hydrogen components (H, H₂), carbon monoxide (CO) and electrons. We compared the results obtained with our previous experimental and theoretical studies; the latter one has been carried out in equilibrium situation. We also compared our results with those given by the method based on the minimization of the Gibbs free energy widely used in the literature.