International Journal of Physics | Vol. 15, No. 11, November 2024 | pp. 81–88
DOI: 10.46882/2024/IJP/000175
Research Article
Title: Kinetic Modelling of Electron Swarm Fluxes and Dissociation Barriers in Propane-Oxygen Discharges
Names of Authors: D. L. Santos¹, T. H. Nguyen²
Authors’ Affiliations:
¹ Department of Physics, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
² Department of Physics, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam
Abstract: Propane-oxygen (C³H⁸-O2) gas discharges are widely deployed across the industrial materials processing and environmental chemical manufacturing sectors for synthetic carbon film growth, surface polymer activation, and volatile organic compound mitigation. This paper develops a self-consistent kinetic model to evaluate electron swarm fluxes and calculate molecular dissociation barriers in low-pressure propane-oxygen mixtures. We solved the electron Boltzmann equation using a multi-term spherical harmonic expansion framework across a wide reduced electric field range (E/N) from 10.0 Td to 500.0 Td. The cross-section dataset accounted for elastic momentum transfer, rotational transitions, vibrational excitation states, dissociative electron attachment, and direct impact ionization processes. Our modeling results show that adding small fractions of oxygen (from 5.0% to 20.0% by volume) significantly distorts the high-energy tail of the electron distribution function. At E/N = 85.0 Td, the total propyl radical (C³H⁷) production rate coefficient increases by over an order of magnitude due to efficient energy channeling into the primary vibrational thresholds of propane. The calculated electron drift velocities match independent swarm experimental measurements within a ±5.0% variance index. These kinetic parameters provide critical baseline inputs for optimizing commercial plasma reactors.
Keywords: Propane plasmas; Boltzmann equation; electron transport; dissociation barriers; chemical vapor deposition; cross-section
Manuscript Timeline: Received: August 18, 2024; Revised: October 10, 2024; Accepted: October 28, 2024; Published: November 12, 2024
Citation: Santos, D. L., & Nguyen, T. H. (2024). Kinetic Modelling of Electron Swarm Fluxes and Dissociation Barriers in Propane-Oxygen Discharges. International Journal of Physics, 15(11), 81–88.
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