NEGATIVE CORONA DISCHARGE IN FLOWING N2O AND ITS MIXTURES WITH N2 AND O2

The electrical properties of the negative corona discharge between coaxial cylindrical electrodes have been experimentally studied at an ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure in flowing pure O2 and N2O as well as in mixtures N2 + N2O and O2 + N2O. The discharge current was found to be slightly increasing within the flow rate range (100-500) cm3/min. At higher flow rates the effect of the flow rate was only marginal in all gases and mixtures tested in experiments. The calculated ion mobility in pure N2O and its mixture with oxygen was found to be considerably below the value corresponding to expected ions O-, O2-or O3-. The low values of the ion mobility can be contributed to the generation of O-.(N2O)n and NO-.(N2O)n clusters. The mobility of charged particles in drift region of the discharge, calculated by using Townsend formula from current-voltage data was almost increasing with increasing discharge current in all tested gases except of N2 + N2O mixture