State to state dissociation constants and non-equilibrium vibrational distributions under microwave hydrogen plasmas

The influence of dissociation of H2(v) molecule at vibrational levels in the range 10-14 through collisions with H2 and H on the vibrational distribution function (vdf) and the dissociation yield of H2 in microwave sustained reactors has been investigated using recent theoretical estimations of the dissociation rates based on semi-classical trajectory method. The results show that insertion of H2(v=10-14) strongly affects the dissociation process leading also to a non-Boltzmann vdf of H2(v). © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V.