A diode laser and modeling study of mixed (CH4-H2-O2) AC plasmas

Infrared diode laser spectroscopy has been used as a diagnostic probe to measure the concentrations of the methyl radical and stable products in an ac methane/hydrogen/oxygen (CH4-H-2-O-2) plasma. Among the products detected were all of the stable C-2 hydrocarbons and oxygen-containing species including methanol, formaldehyde, formic acid, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide. A simple one-dimensional chemical modeling program has been written to calculate and compare the model concentrations of all the detected species with their observed concentrations. Good agreement between these values has been obtained which enables some insights to be gained into the gas-phase mechanism in mixed methane plasmas.