Enhanced Triboelectric Microplasma with Incorporated Drainage Electrode

The atmospheric pressure microplasma jet (APMJ) is a low-energy jet with widespread applications. However, the bulkiness, high cost, immobility, and danger of commercial devices limit their further development. Here, a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) microplasma, which is characterized to be portable, inexpensive, easy, and safe based on a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), is proposed to generate an APMJ. Four typical electrodes are compared in terms of the generation performance of the triboelectric microplasma, and the best one, with a ring electrode surrounding the capillary and a wire electrode located in the center, is chosen for the experiments. The effects of the electrode structural parameters on the spectral intensity and discharge current are explored through several experiments. Moreover, the electric field and potential distributions are obtained through theoretical analysis and simulation. Finally, an extra drainage electrode is incorporated and placed beside the nozzle of the capillary for enhancing the performance of the APMJ. Consequently, the spectral intensity of the APMJ with a drainage electrode is increased by 53.1% and the flame length by 35.7% when compared to those without one. The newly proposed APMJ has great potential for application in biomedical fields, such as cell processing, sterilization, and wound disinfection.