A Workshop on Science Challenges in Low Temperature Plasma Science and Engineering: Enabling a Future Based on Electricity through Non-Equilibrium Plasma Chemistry

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This grant is to provide partial travel support for 45 researchers to attend a "Workshop on Science Challenges in Low Temperature Plasma Science and Engineering: Enabling a Future Based on Electricity through Non-Equilibrium Plasma Chemistry". Salary support for a technical editor and a graphic artist to assist with the production of the final report of the workshop is also provided. The workshop will be held at NSF in the spring or early summer of 2016 and aims to create a roadmap defining research challenges and opportunities in the field of Low Temperature Plasmas (LTPs) with the following objectives:- Summarize the current state of the art in plasma activated processes.- Describe the role of LTPs in facilitating the vision of a future based on renewable resources.- Delineate and prioritize the major scientific issues in LTPs that must be addressed to achieve that vision.- Describe a role for NSF in addressing these science challenges.Intellectual Merit:This workshop is motivated by the need to explore the efficient conversion of electricity into chemical reactivity. Chemical reactivity enables the synthesis of new materials, the production of chemicals, fertilizers, plastics, pharmaceuticals and food. Two common ways in which electrical power is transformed into chemical reactivity are electrochemistry and electro-catalysis. Low Temperature Plasmas (LTPs) can be a very versatile alternative technology for converting electrical energy into chemical reactivity. LTPs can interact with gases, liquids and solids under non-equilibrium conditions that enable production of unique chemical reactivity.The proposed workshop will bring together the leading scientists and engineers in LTPs with the objective of discussing and defining the major scientific challenges that prevent translation of this technology into commercial practice. The context of the workshop will be to define the role of LTPs in enabling a sustainable future through efficient utilization of renewable electricity. The workshop will provide a forum for open exchange of ideas among the participants and NSF staff with the objective of defining the challenges and priorities for research in this field, and their potential impact on society. Broader Impacts Understanding the role of LTPs in converting electrical energy to chemical reactivity is an important topic with potentially significant societal impact related to energy sustainability. This workshop will address the state of the art in the field and define the challenges that must be overcome to enable commercial exploitation of LTPs in a broad range of applications. The ultimate objective of the workshop will be to define a roadmap for research that addresses these challenges that will be useful to NSF, other federal agencies (DOE, DOD, NASA, and EPA), policy makers, and the scientific community at large.