Spectroscopic diagnostics of arc discharge plasma between composite Mo-Cu electrodes with oxide impurities
Keywords:
thermal plasma, arc discharge, composite electrodes, optical emission spectroscopy, laser absorption spectroscopy, oxide impuritiesAbstract
The work presents a comprehensive study of thermal plasma of electric arc discharge between composite electrodes of compositions Mo-50Cu-2Al2O3, Mo-50Cu-2Y2O3 and Mo-50Cu-5Y2O3 (in wt.%). The experiments were carried out in an argon flow at atmospheric pressure and a current of 3.5 A. A combination of spatially resolved synchronized optical emission spectroscopy and laser absorption spectroscopy methods was used to diagnose plasma parameters. The radial distributions of the excitation temperature and the number densities of copper and molybdenum atoms were determined using the Boltzmann plot technique. Based on the experimentally determined plasma parameters, the equilibrium plasma composition was calculated taking into account the dissociation and ionization products of oxide additives, in particular stable monoxides YO and AlO.
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