Aerosol generation and decomposition of CFC-113 by the ferroelectric packed-bed plasma reactor

Plasma chemical decomposition, aerosol generation, and product distribution of 1, 1, 2 trichlorotrifluoroethane (CFC-113[CCl/sub 2/F-CClF/sub 2/]) were investigated using a ferroelectric packed-bad plasma reactor. CFC-119 decomposition was the highest with dry hydrogen among three background gases (H/sub 2/, N/sub 2/, and air), but was not significantly affected by humidity. Most of the aerosols produced under plasma were of a particle size less than 0.1 /spl mu/m. Aerosol generation increased with applied voltage and concentration but was not affected by humidity and background gases, indicating that aerosol generation is associated with plasma energy per given volume (plasma power density). Aerosolization of 1000 ppm CFC-113 was approximately 10 aerosols/cm/sup 3/ in air and was significantly greater in air than in N/sub 2/. The greatest quantity of reaction by products was for dry H/sub 2/, followed by wet N/sub 2/, dry N/sub 2/, wet air and dry air. Reaction by products were minimal with aerated condition. The plasma reaction starts out by breaking the C-C bond to form radicals, which react with background gases. The C-F bond is much stronger than the C-Cl bond and the C-Cl bond with two F atoms on the same carbon atom is stronger than that with one F atom.