Abstract
An investigation has been carried out to obtain information about the effect of quenching on ethylene decomposition in the induction-coupled argon plasma jet at 1 atm. The quenching of the decomposed products was made by a small water-cooled silica tube. The lowering of the quenching temperature due to the increase in the distance between the inlet of the small silica tube and the induction coil increased the selectivity of acetylene formation on carbon base, but at the same time, the increase in the distance changed the conditions of mixing of ethylene with the plasma jet flame. The increase of the inside diameter of the small silica tube with a given outside diameter also yielded acetylene more selectively due to the drop in the quenching rate. Furthermore, it was suggested from the products distribution that the quenching of the decomposed products occurred at higher temperatures as the flow rate of argon increased. Deviation from thermodynamic equilibrium of the carbon-hydrogen system for composition C/H=0.5 increased with the increase in the distance between the inlet of the small silica tube and the induction coil and with the lowering of argon flow rate.
