Rotating Gliding Arc Assisted Water Splitting in Atmospheric Nitrogen

In this study, hydrogen production from water splitting in N₂ using an atmospheric pressure rotating gliding arc plasma was investigated. The effect of input H₂O concentration and total flow rate on the performance of the plasma water splitting process (e.g., H₂ and O₂ yield, H₂ production rate, and energy yield of H₂) was investigated. N₂ showed a pronouncedly facilitating effect on the H₂O splitting and H₂ production process due to the reactions of the excited N₂ species e.g., electronically excited metastable N₂(A)] with the H₂O molecules. The maximum H₂ production rate reached up to 41.3 μmols^?1, which is much higher than that of other typical non-thermal plasmas (e.g., ~0.2 μmols^?1 for a dielectric barrier discharge). Optical emission diagnostics has shown that in addition to the NO, N₂, and N₂ ⁺ that were observed in the pure N₂ spectra, strong OH and NH emission lines also appeared in the H₂O/N₂ spectra. OH radical is considered as a key intermediate species that could contribute to the formation of H₂, O₂, and H₂O₂. The increase of the H₂O concentration could lead to a continuous enhancement of the OH intensity. The rotational temperature of N₂ ⁺ dropped drastically from 2875 ± 125 to 1725 ± 25 K with the addition of 1 % (mol/mol) H₂O into the N₂ plasma.