Paper PS1-ThA3
Gas Phase Studies of CH3OH Plasmas Using Optical Emission Spectroscopy

Thursday, October 18, 2007, 2:40 pm, Room 606

Plasmas are traditionally used for deposition, etching, and surface modification of various types of materials, most notably in the semiconductor industry. Plasma systems have recently been utilized in a non-traditional application, water remediation. Three steps are involved in this process; determining which organic molecules can be detected, developing effective detection systems, and establishing the efficacy of abatement. Recent studies of dense medium plasma systems have developed oxidation mechanisms for organic molecules, converted organic contaminants to less toxic species, and examined aromatic compound breakdown with GC/MS. Here, we have investigated the use of an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) system with optical emission spectroscopy (OES) for the purpose of non-intrusive detection as well as abatement of organic molecules in contaminated water. Our data demonstrate that not only is detection of organic molecule breakdown possible for a variety of species, but abatement is also possible. Currently we are able to detect <100 ppm contamination and are exploring this technique for the desired detection limits in the ppb range. OES data for the detection and abatement of CH3OH and larger organic molecules such as urea and methyl tert-butyl ether in aqueous solutions will be presented.