SGER: Development of in situ NMR spectroscopy and in situ MRI as new diagnostic tools for atmospheric pressure plasmas

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Proposal Number: CBET-0747253Principal Investigator: Meersmann, Thomas Affiliation: Colorado State UniversityProposal Title: SGER: Development of in situ NMR spectroscopy and in situ MRI as new diagnostic tools for atmospheric pressure plasmasElectrical plasmas are widely used for processes from microchip manufacturing to fluorescent lighting to treatment and cutting or materials. This research, sponsored through the Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER) program, seeks to explore the development of new, magnetic-resonance-based analytical instrumentation for plasma research and to establish the proof of principle for it. The goal is to use hyperpolarized isotopes 129Xe and 83Kr, used previously by the PI in other systems, to provide spatially resolved information about in situ gas transport such as flow field parameters, diffusion data, and exchange of xenon between various regions of the plasma. Furthermore, it is possible that 129Xe relaxation will allow insights into the presence of radicals and gas interactions within plasmas. The 83Kr technique should be much less sensitive to the presence of paramagnetic radicals and thus could be applied at conditions where the radical concentration is too high for 129Xe NMR. It could also be used to compare relaxation data between the two noble gas isotopes to study effects caused by the presence of radicals.If successful, the research is expected to yield valuable new tools for analysis of plasmas. A particularly exciting aspect is the potential to use NMR to look at magnetohydrodynamics and chemically speciated velocity, concentration, and temperature while driving ions with Lorenz forces and/or applied E-fields, about which almost nothing is known for atmospheric discharges.