Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma Deoxidation of Natively Oxide Layer of Copper Powders in a Fluidized Bed

This paper presents a novel approach to reduce the oxide layers on the surface of metal powders by using low‐temperature hydrogen dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasmas at atmospheric pressure. Compared to other reductions of metal oxides using hydrogen plasma, in this setup, metal powders do not contact the plasma directly, but the highly reactive reducing species H or H is generated in plasma zone and then transported to the particle surfaces within a very short time. Copper powder was chosen to test the deoxidation performance. After deoxidation, the metal powders follow an O ‐free transport into a glove box, which is filled with Argon 5.0, and there the deoxidation performance will be identified through a self‐developed analytical system called Powder Photoelectron current Spectroscopy [1]. Fundamental issues about this DBD plasma reactor were investigated, including the H concentration, power consumption, temperature, and pressure drop of the fluidized bed during the deoxidation and the kinetics of the deoxidation of copper powder.