Plasma-assisted synthesis of N2O5from NO2in air at atmospheric pressure using a dielectric pellet bed reactor

It has been demonstrated that a dielectric packed pellet-bed plasma reactor operating on a mixture of NO 2 in air at atmospheric pressure can be used as an efficient method for the synthesis of dinitrogen pentoxide, N 2 O 5 . The reactor is packed with glass beads and operates at high frequency (10-13 kHz) and high voltage ( V pk - pk <30 kV). Typically, the energy density is 38 J l -1 and 45 ppm of NO 2 is converted into 53 ppm of N 2 O 5 . The synthesis of N 2 O 5 is found to be plasma-assisted in the sense that sources of nitrogen in addition to the initial NO 2 are converted into N 2 O 5 by the plasma. There is an energy cost of ~180 eV for every molecule of N 2 O 5 produced. The possible role played by surface and heterogeneous effects in the pellet bed reactor is considered.