Chemical Reactions in Electric Discharge

Abstract

Chemical reactions both in electric discharge and induced by ionizing radiation, involve ionized gas. However, the chemical role of ionization in these two cases differs. In electric discharge the mean energy of electrons is usually much lower than the ionization potential of molecules. Consequently, the ionization by electron impact in discharge, though needed for sustaining the discharge, to impart the electron energy to the gas, only makes up a small contribution to chemical conversions. The primary elementary steps of chemical importance usually involve the excitation of molecules and their dissociation to neutral fragments. These steps are considered in the following.