Operating Characteristics of Stretchable and Flexible Dielectric Barrier Discharge Source*

Surface dielectric barrier discharges (sDBD) have been utilized in various non-thermal plasma applications including material processing, biomedicine, and agriculture. sDBD sources are mostly rigid, which make application difficult to objects with complex shapes. Previously, we have developed a flexible sDBD source to address this issue [Sci. Rep. (2021) 11:12206]. In this work, we present the operating characteristics of a novel stretchable and flexible dielectric barrier discharge (SFDBD) source capable of high-curvature 3D bending and stretching. The SFDBD source was fabricated by printing liquid metal electrodes on various elastic polymer substrates. Stable discharge was generated at up to 150% strain (2.5 times of original length). When elastically deforming the SFDBD source under constant voltage, the electrical power to the plasma increased linearly with the strain. For a 1 mm thick substrate, the discharge operated by a 5 kHz, 7.0 kV sinusoidal voltage consumed a power of 0.038 W/cm without strain and consumed 0.15 W/cm at 140% strain. No hysteresis was observed when returning to the unstretched state. This behavior is explained by the linear increase in the capacitance of the polymer dielectric with the strain. The developed SFDBD source has good durability and can maintain stable discharge for over ten hours without degradation.

 

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant No. 2022R1A2C1092592 and No. 2021R1A2C2007835 funded by the Korean government.