Plasma-driven solution electrolysis

Abstract

Plasmas interacting with liquids enable the generation of a highly reactive interfacial liquid layer due to a variety of processes driven by plasma-produced electrons, ions, photons, and radicals. These processes show promise to enable selective, efficient, and green chemical transformations and new material synthesis approaches. While many differences are to be expected between conventional electrolysis and plasma–liquid interactions, plasma–liquid interactions can be viewed, to a first approximation, as replacing a metal electrode in an electrolytic cell with a gas phase plasma. For this reason, we refer to this method as plasma-driven solution electrochemistry (PDSE). In this Perspective, we address two fundamental questions that should be answered to enable researchers to make transformational advances in PDSE: How far from equilibrium can plasma-induced solution processes be driven? and What are the fundamental differences between PDSE and other more traditional electrochemical processes? Different aspects of both questions are discussed in five sub-questions for which we review the current state-of-the art and we provide a motivation and research vision.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
May 24, 2021
Source ID
10.1063/5.0044261

Entities

People

  • Chelsea M. Mueller
  • Chi Xu
  • Christopher C. Rich
  • George C. Schatz
  • Himashi P. Andaraarachchi
  • Leighton Jones
  • Mark Kushner
  • Peter J Bruggeman
  • Renee R. Frontiera
  • Stephen Exarhos
  • Suljo Linic
  • Uwe Kortshagen
  • Yi Zhang
  • Yuanfu Yue

Organizations

  • Army Research Office
  • National Science Foundation
  • Northwestern University
  • United States Department of Energy
  • University of Michigan
  • University of Minnesota

Tags

Readers

  • Nanoscale Plasmonic Nanotechnology
  • Pulsed Power and Plasma Physics.
  • Systems Analysis and Design

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics