Oxygen isotope (18O2) evidence on the role of oxygen in the plasma-driven catalysis of VOC oxidation

This paper reports isotopic evidence on non-thermal plasma-induced fixation of gas-phase oxygen on the surface of several catalysts such as TiO(2), Ag/TiO(2), Ag/gamma-Al(2)O(3) and Ag/MS-13X at atmospheric-pressure. On-line mass spectrometric analysis and stoichiometric comparison of reactants and products revealed that the fixed surface oxygen can be activated by nonthermal plasma. The fixed (18)O by nonthermal plasma survived for a certain period of time (about 30 min), and involved in the formation of isotope-exchanged oxygen ((18)O(16)O) and isotope containing CO(x) (CO and CO(2)).