DBD Plasma Combined with Different Foam Metal Electrodes for CO(2) Decomposition: Experimental Results and DFT Validations

In the last few years, due to the large amount of greenhouse gas emissions causing environmental issue like global warming, methods for the full consumption and utilization of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO(2)) have attracted great attention. In this study, a packed-bed dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) coaxial reactor has been developed and applied to split CO(2) into industrial fuel carbon monoxide (CO). Different packing materials (foam Fe, Al, and Ti) were placed into the discharge gap of the DBD reactor, and then CO(2) conversion was investigated. The effects of power, flow velocity, and other discharge characteristics of CO(2) conversion were studied to understand the influence of the filling catalysts on CO(2) splitting. Experimental results showed that the filling of foam metals in the reactor caused changes in discharge characteristics and discharge patterns, from the original filamentary discharge to the current filamentary discharge as well as surface discharge. Compared with the maximum CO(2) conversion of 21.15% and energy efficiency of 3.92% in the reaction tube without the foam metal materials, a maximum CO(2) decomposition rate of 44.84%, 44.02%, and 46.61% and energy efficiency of 6.86%, 6.19%, and 8.85% were obtained in the reaction tubes packed with foam Fe, Al, and Ti, respectively. The CO(2) conversion rate for reaction tubes filled with the foam metal materials was clearly enhanced compared to the non-packed tubes. It could be seen that the foam Ti had the best CO(2) decomposition rate among the three foam metals. Furthermore, we used density functional theory to further verify the experimental results. The results indicated that CO(2) adsorption had a lower activation energy barrier on the foam Ti surface. The theoretical calculation was consistent with the experimental results, which better explain the mechanism of CO(2) decomposition.