Influence of various gas inclusion in Ar thermal ICP at atmospheric pressure upon plasma temperature and impedance

The influence of various gas inclusions upon thermal plasma was investigated from the viewpoint of finding alternatives to SF/sub 6/ as an arc-quenching medium in a high voltage circuit breaker. The inductively coupled thermal plasma (ICTP) technique was used to sustain thermal plasma. The effect of SF/sub 6/ and six environmental-benign gas inclusions on plasma temperature and impedance was measured. The result indicated that SF/sub 6/ causes the plasma radius reduction and plasma temperature decline only with a several percentage inclusion. The similar tendency was found for CO/sub 2/, while it was not found for the other five gases. This indicates that CO/sub 2/ has a higher plasma-quenching property than the others in the experiment.