Japanese researchers have used a single-mode microwave generator to produce their metal plasmas. This creates more controlled and highly focused microwaves. Hot gases composed of metal ions and electrons, called plasmas, are widely used in many manufacturing processes, chemical synthesis, and metal extraction from ores and welding. A collaborative research group from Tohoku University and the Toyohashi University of Technology has invented a new and efficient method to create metallic plasmas from solid metals under a strong magnetic field in a microwave resonator.
The final and more innovative system contains a double quartz tube, with the solid material that is converted into the plasma sitting within the inner tube.
This is a new and unconventional method for utilizing plasmas, which we consider to be crucial for reducing the energy requirements for future materials science applications.
AIP Advances Journal – Metal ion plasma generation under strong magnetic field in microwave resonator
In many conventional plasma generation methods, a strong electric field is applied to a gas or liquid to generate plasma. In addition, metal oxides such as rare earth minerals and metals require enormous amounts of energy for their reduction reactions. In this paper, we propose a method of directly exciting the plasma from Mg and Ca metal solids, without gas or liquid, using a strong magnetic field and stabilizing it. Electrons and atoms are emitted by the induced current in a resonator operated in the TM110 mode; these electrons and atoms are generated as plasma in a magnetic field. The resonance frequency is then changed slightly from the TM110 mode to the TM111 mode while being limited to ∼40 MHz, ensuring that the microwave energy is supplied stably to the plasma and that light is emitted until the raw material is exhausted. The radicals and ions of the Mg and Ca metals possess sufficient Gibbs free energy for the reduction reactions and can therefore reduce scandium oxide and vanadium oxide at low temperatures. In the future, radicals with sufficient energy can be implemented in energy-saving processes in the field of materials processing.
The generation of stable Mg and Ca ions, which have sufficient Gibbs free energy, helps in realizing the reduction of scandium oxide and vanadium oxide at low temperatures, which has been a major challenge thus far due to the use of Eryngium. Furthermore, energy-saving processes can be realized for material synthesis and reduction reactions by implementing new material processes.
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