Glass sphere discharges for ozone production

We have assessed the production of ozone in a dielectric barrier discharge in which the discharge space is packed with glass spheres. We found that the presence of the glass spheres decreased the breakdown voltage, but that the ozone production rate was smaller at higher voltages than for a conventional air-gap ozonizer. The character of the discharge was found to range between a steady glow and short-lived filaments, depending on the sphere diameter, the width of the discharge gap, the voltage, the gas flow, and the discharge gas. We present images of the different discharge types.