Decomposition of dichlorobenzene in a dielectric barrier discharge

This paper presents a decomposition study of 1,2-dichlorobenzene (DCB) using a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD). The discussion is focused on the effects of variations of carrier gases, DCB concentrations and input voltages on the decomposition performance. The DCB conversion was conducted inside a cylindrical reactor consists of silver film as the outside electrode and a spring coil as the inside electrode. Two carrier gases, i.e. air and nitrogen, were introduced to the reactor at a total flow rate of 500 mL/min with DCB concentrations of 100, 300 and 500 ppm. Gaseous products, before and after plasma treatment, were analysed by a gas chromatography and FT-IR spectroscopy, and the consumed power was calculated from Lissajous' figure analysis. In order to improve the decomposition performance, various TiO2-supported catalysts were employed.