Effects of Liquid Electrical Conductivity on the Electrical and Optical Characteristics of an AC-Excited Argon Gas–Liquid-Phase Discharge

In this paper, the electrical and optical characteristics of an ac-excited argon streamer-like discharge operating in a gas-liquid-phase are investigated under different initial liquid electrical conductivities. The experimental results show that on one hand, there exist significant influences of the initial liquid electrical conductivities, ranging from 20 to 2000 μS/cm, on the characteristics of the two-phase discharges at the initial stage, e.g., the discharge voltage and current, the penetrating depth of the plasma plume into the liquid, the rotational and vibrational temperatures of the plasmas, and the electron number density. While on the other hand, significant temporal behaviors of the discharges, e.g., the discharge voltage and current, the plasma plume length, and the corresponding solution properties, e.g., the pH value, electrical conductivity, and the H
₂
O
₂
concentration, are also observed with the extension of the operating time with other parameters being unchanged. These results are helpful for promoting the applications of the two-phase discharge plasmas in the field of environment protection.