Plasma-Enhanced Catalysis for Automotive Exhausts

This paper presents a concept for enhancing catalytic removal of pollutant species from an exhaust stream by placing placing the plasma adjacent to the catalyst surface. Model calculations of the behavior of the electron energy distribution function (EEDF), which influences the chemistry and ionization levels near the surface, are performed and analyzed. Preliminary experiments attempting to reduce these theoretical ideas to practice in N₂/NO mixtures, are discussed. Although removal of NO is observed, this is due to gas phase effects alone. The present experimental arrangement is not able to produce the requisite conditions outlined by theory to enact plasma-enhanced catalysis.