Decomposition Mechanism of Fluorinated Compounds in Water Plasmas Generated Under Atmospheric Pressure

Decomposition mechanism of HFC-134a, HFC-32, and CF₄ in water plasmas at atmospheric pressure has been investigated. The decomposition efficiency of 99.9% can be obtained up to 3.17 mol kWh⁻¹ of the ratio of hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) feed rate to the arc power and 1.89 mol kWh⁻¹ of the ratio of perfluorocarbon (PFC) feed rate to the arc power. The species such as H₂, CO, CO₂, CH₄, and CF₄ were detected from the effluent gas of both PFC and HFC decomposition. However, CH₂F₂ and CHF₃ were observed only in the case of HFC decomposition. The HFC and PFC decomposition generate CH₂F, CHF_{x (x:1–2)}, and CF_{y (y:1–3)} radicals, then those radicals were subsequently oxidized by oxygen, leading to CO and CO₂ generation in the excess oxygen condition. However, when there is insufficient oxygen available, those radicals were easily recombined with fluorine to form by-product such as CH₂F₂, CHF₃, and CF₄.