Chemical Scavenger Probe Studies of Atom and Excited Molecule Reactivity in Active Nitrogen From a Supersonic Stream

A quartz chemical scavenger probe has been developed to study the local composition of supersonic electrically discharged gas streams. The probe samples the central portion of a nonequilibrium jet and allows direct comparison with other local measurement techniques (e.g. differential catalytic detectors) for determining active species concentrations. Active nitrogen from a Mach 3 stream was sampled and reacted inside the probe with one of the scavenger gases NO, NH 3 , or C 2 H 4 at 18.8 mm Hg and at an average temperature of 500 °K. Limiting values of the NO destruction rate and the HCN production rate were observed; however, NH 3 destruction exhibited no plateau. The observed maximum rate of NO destruction was 2.1 times as large as the NO flow rate at the light titration end-point. This difference is attributed to a reaction of NO, added in excess of the titration end-point flow, with metastable electronically excited molecules formed within the discharge zone. The converging-diverging supersonic nozzle-glow discharge source used in these experiments apparently delivers metastable excited molecules to the reaction zone in a higher relative concentration than do the more conventional subsonic electrical discharge flow systems used for most previous active nitrogen studies.