Atmospheric pressure glow discharge generated in nitrogen-methane gas mixture: PTR-MS analyzes of the exhaust gas

journal article in Web of Science

English

This paper reports the results of an extensive study of with the in situ masss pectrometry analysis of gaseous phase species produced by an atmospheric plasma glow discharge in N2-CH4 gas mixtures (with methane concentrations ranging from 1% to 4%). The products are studied using proton-transfer reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS). HCN and CH3CN are identified as the main gaseous products. Hydrazine, methanimine, methyldiazene, ethylamine, cyclohexadiene, pyrazineacetylene, ethylene, propyneand propene are identified as minor compounds. All the detected compounds and their relative abundances are determined with respect to the experimental conditions (gas composition and applied power). The same Molecules were observed by the Cassini-Huygens probe in Titan’s atmosphere (which has same N2-CH4 gas mixtures). Such, experiments show that the formation of such complex organics in atmospheres containing C, N and H, like that of Titan, could be a source of prebiotic molecules.

Titan’s atmosphere, atmospheric glow discharge, PTR-MS spectrometry

TÖRÖKOVÁ, L.; MAZÁNKOVÁ, V.; KRČMA, F. et al.

2015

3. 8. 2015

The European Physical Journal Applied Physics

1286-0042

EUROPEAN PHYSICAL JOURNAL-APPLIED PHYSICS

71

2

French Republic

20806

20810

5