Temperature and nitric oxide generation in a pulsed arc discharge plasma

Nitric oxide (NO) is increasingly being used in medical treatments of high blood pressure, acute respiratory distress syndrome and other illnesses related to the lungs. Currently a NO inhalation system consists of a gas cylinder of N-2 mixed with a high concentration of NO. This arrangement is potentially risky due to the possibility of an accidental leak of NO from the cylinder. The presence of NO in the air leads to the formation of nitric dioxide (NO2), which is toxic to the lungs. Therefore, an on-site generator of NO would be highly desirable for medical doctors to use with patients with lung disease. To develop the NO inhalation system without a gas cylinder, which would include a high concentration of NO, NAMIHIRA et al have recently reported on the production of NO from room air using a pulsed arc discharge. In the present work, the temperature of the pulsed arc discharge plasma used to generate NO was measured to optimize the discharge condition. The results of the temperature measurements showed the temperature of the pulsed arc discharge plasma reached about 10,000 K immediately after discharge initiation and gradually decreased over tens of microseconds. In addition, it was found that NO was formed in a discharge plasma having temperatures higher than 9,000 K and a smaller input energy into the discharge plasma generates NO more efficiently than a larger one.