Degradation of methylene blue by radio frequency plasmas in water under ultraviolet irradiation.

The degradation of methylene blue by radio frequency (RF) plasmas in water under ultraviolet (UV) irradiation was studied experimentally. When the methylene blue solution was exposed to RF plasma, UV irradiation from a mercury vapor lamp enhanced degradation significantly. A lamp without power supply also enhanced degradation since weak UV light was emitted weakly from the lamp due to the excitation of mercury vapor by stray RF power. Such an enhancement is explained by the fact that after hydrogen peroxide is produced via the recombination process of OH radicals around the plasma, OH radicals reproduced from hydrogen peroxide via the photolysis process degrade methylene blue.

A supercritical carbon dioxide plasma process for preparing tungsten oxide nanowires.

A supercritical carbon dioxide (CO(2)) plasma process for fabricating one-dimensional tungsten oxide nanowires coated with amorphous carbon is presented. High-frequency plasma was generated in supercritical carbon dioxide at 20 MPa by using tungsten electrodes mounted in a supercritical cell, and subsequently an organic solvent was introduced with supercritical carbon dioxide into the plasma. Electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy investigations of the deposited materials showed the production of tungsten oxide nanowires with or without an outer layer. The nanowires with an outer layer exhibited a coaxial structure with an outer concentric layer of amorphous carbon and an inner layer of tungsten oxide with a thickness and diameter of 20-30 and 10-20 nm, respectively.