N2

The dataset contains results from application of a mid-infrared frequency comb-based Fourier transform spectrometer to measure high-resolution spectra of plasmas containing hydrogen, nitrogen, and a carbon source in the 2800 – 3400 cm–1 range. The spectrally broadband and high-resolution capabilities of this technique enable quantum-state-resolved spectroscopy of multiple plasma-generated species simultaneously, including CH4, C2H2, C2H6, NH3, and HCN, providing detailed information beyond the limitations of current methods.

Plasma-activated chemical transformations promise the efficient synthesis of salient chemical products. However, the reaction pathways that lead to desirable products are often unknown, and key quantum-state-resolved information regarding the involved molecular species is lacking. Here we use quantum cascade laser dual-comb spectroscopy (QCL-DCS) to probe plasma-activated NH3 generation with rotational and vibrational state resolution, quantifying state-specific number densities via broadband spectral analysis.

Laser absorption spectroscopy (LAS) was applied to investigate a low pressure DC-pulsed discharge in N2-H2 gas mixtures with addition of CH4 or O2. The discharge was maintained in an industrial-scale, active screen plasma nitrocarburizing (ASPNC) reactor with a steel active screen (AS). Spectroscopic lines of CH4, NH3, HCN, CO and H2O were recorded. The dataset contains the species densities for different gas mixtures.

The effects of nitrous oxide (N2O) in nitrogen (N2) on the development and morphology of sine-driven dielectric barrier discharges in a single-filament arrangement were studied. Detailed insight in the characteristics of the discharge and its development were obtained from electrical measurements combined with ICCD and streak camera recordings as well as numerical modelling. A miniaturised atmospheric pressure Townsend discharge (APTD) could be generated for admixtures up to 5vol% N2O in N2 although N2O is an efficient collisional quencher of metastable nitrogen molecules.

Absolute ground state atomic hydrogen densities were measured, by utilisation of two-photon absorption laser induced fluorescence (TALIF), in a low pressure electron cyclotron resonance plasma as a function of nitrogen admixtures - 0 to 5000 ppm. At nitrogen admixtures of 1500 ppm and higher the spectral distribution of the fluorescence changes from a single Gaussian to a double Gaussian distribution; this is due to a separate, nascent, contribution arising from the photolysis of an ammonia molecule.