On the quenching of excited electronic states of molecular nitrogen in nanosecond pulsed discharges in atmospheric pressure air

Emission measurements are carried out to study the quenching of excited electronic states of nitrogen, N2∗, in nanosecond pulsed discharges in atmospheric pressure air and nitrogen. The results reveal that ground state N2 quenches N2(C) and N2(B) at rates less than dissociative quenching by ground state O2 by a factor of 4 and 2.5, respectively. Kinetic simulations with the inferred quench rates indicate that the dissociative quenching of N2∗ by O2 is responsible for 82% of atomic oxygen production while electron-impact dissociation of O2 is for 5% under these discharge conditions.