ECLIPSE/Collaborative Research: Unravelling the Coupled Physics of Piezoelectric and Plasma Behavior in Piezoelectric Stimulated Plasma Sources

这一奖项将使压电等离子体放电中的大气压等离子体的基础研究成为可能。常压非热等离子体的应用有时会受到限制，因为它们的运行需要奇异、昂贵或笨重的电子设备和电路。常压非热等离子体具有很高的活性，可以用于从水净化和清洁能源技术到杀菌的各种应用。压电材料可以通过机械运动产生等离子体，形成压电刺激等离体源，从而缓解对高端电源的需求。压电激励等离子体源的主要特点是具有高电压增益和高介电常数，能够在压电体表面直接形成等离子体。目前对压电材料和等离子体相互作用的了解非常有限，固相压电和等离子体过程的动力学之间的耦合也存在一些尚未解决的基本问题。该研究项目将提供对等离子体科学的一个新领域的理解，该领域可转化为传感器、生物医学、化学、流体动力学和材料应用。因此，南卡罗来纳大学和圣母大学之间的这一合作项目得到了等离子体科学与工程生态系统(ECLIPSE)计划的支持。通过结合和连贯的建模和实验工作，将促进对压电刺激等离子体源的基本理解。将开发一种新的多物理建模框架，以实验为基准，以目前尚不存在的完全集成的方式解决固相压电材料和气相等离子体。在基础水平上的了解将有助于促进对等离子体-表面相互作用的理解，这对各种等离子体设备来说是重要的。预计这项工作的成果将是在压电刺激非热等离子体放电的预测建模和变革性知识方面的重大飞跃，通过重点虚拟研讨会延伸到全球等离子体社区，基于YouTube的关于压电直接等离子体放电的短视频模块，以及学生交流和推广活动，以激励未被充分代表的学生和普通公众对STEM的认识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award will enable a foundational study of atmospheric pressure plasmas in piezoelectric plasma discharges. The application of atmospheric pressure non-thermal plasmas – which are highly reactive and can be used for applications ranging from water purification and clean energy technology to sterilization – can at times be limited by requiring exotic, expensive, or bulky electronics and circuits for their operation. Piezoelectric materials could relax the need for high-end power supplies by using mechanical motion to produce the plasma forming piezoelectric stimulated plasma sources. The key feature of a piezoelectric stimulated plasma source is that the piezoelectric material is capable of high voltage gain and possesses high dielectric permittivity, enabling direct formation of a plasma at the piezoelectric surface. Current understanding of the interaction between piezoelectric materials and plasmas is very limited and there are unanswered fundamental questions about the coupling between the dynamics of the solid phase piezoelectric and plasma processes. The research project will provide understanding of a new area of plasma science that can be translated to sensor, biomedical, chemical, fluid dynamics, and materials applications. As such, this collaborative project between the University of South Carolina and the University of Notre Dame is being supported under the ECosystem for Leading Innovation in Plasma Science and Engineering (ECLIPSE) program.Fundamental understanding of piezoelectric stimulated plasma sources will be advanced through combined and cohesive modeling and experimental efforts. A new multi-physics modeling framework, benchmarked against experiments, will be developed that resolves both the solid phase piezoelectric material and gas phase plasma in a fully integrated fashion that is currently not available. Understanding at a fundamental level will help advance the understanding of plasma-surface interactions that is important to a large variety of plasma devices. The outcomes of this effort are expected to be a major leap in predictive modeling and transformative knowledge on piezoelectric stimulated non-thermal plasma discharges, outreach to the global plasma community through focused virtual workshops, YouTube-based short video modules on piezoelectric direct plasma discharges, and student exchange and outreach activities to inspire under-represented students and the general public towards STEM.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.