Carbon reactivity in an oxygen plasma:: a comparison with reactivity in molecular oxygen

Reactivity upon immersion in an oxygen plasma is studied in this paper on 46 different carbons and coals. Suitable parameters are chosen to characterize the plasma reactivity of these materials. The observed plasma reactivity trend is compared with the O-2 reactivity trend shown by the same set of materials. Differences are discussed in terms of the influence of structural, chemical and textural factors upon carbon,gasification in both media. To help discern these influences, multiple regression is applied to the factors derived from a principal components analysis. In contrast with O-2 reactivity, oxygen plasma reactivity shows a more feeble dependence on structural factors and none on chemical factors. On the other hand, reactivity dependence from surface area appears to be stronger for the oxygen plasma than for O-2. The above observations are interpreted as a corroboration of the Rideal-type mechanism proposed for the carbon-oxygen plasma reaction by Rosner and Allendorf. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.