Two- and three-body attachment, electron transport and ionisation in water-air mixtures

• Published in: Journal of physics. D, Applied physics Applied physics, 2024-03, Vol.57 (12), p.125205
• Main Authors: de Urquijo, J, González-Magaña, O, Basurto, E, Juárez, A M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: dissociative attachment; electron transport; pulsed Townsend; three-body attachment; two-body attachment; water-air
• ISSN: 0022-3727; 1361-6463
• DOI: 10.1088/1361-6463/ad164a

Three-body electron attachment in the mixtures of H 2 O and dry air have been measured over a wide range of the density-reduced electric field, E/N , from 3–130 Td and gas pressures, for mixture combinations ranging from 1% to 50% of H 2 O. We have measured the regions of three-body attachment (3–30 Td) and two-body dissociative attachment (40–130 Td). Besides, the increasing amount of H 2 O in the mixture causes an increase in the three-body reaction rates of up to two orders of magnitude in comparison with that measured for dry air. On the other hand, the three-body attachment coefficients exceed the two-body ones (dissociative attachment) at high pressures. Good agreement has been found with previous measurements of H 2 O-dry air mixtures with H 2 O concentrations of up to 2%. We know of no previous work for higher H 2 O concentrations. Values of the effective ionisation coefficients and longitudinal diffusion coefficients derived from the same measurements are also presented.