About this Research Topic
The aim of this Research Topic is to collect relevant contributions relating to the study of the reactivity of ionic and excited species with atoms, molecules, and radicals of interest in the chemistry of plasmas and energy production. It is well known that single and multiple ionized species (H+, He+, H3+, HCO+, H3O+, He22+, CO22+, etc.), excited atoms and molecules (e.g. O(1D), N(2D), H*(2s2S1/2), He*(21,3S0,1), N2*(A3Σu+), etc.), and radicals (OH, SH, NH, NH2, CH2, CH3, etc.) play an important role in many chemical systems such as flames, natural plasmas (planetary ionospheres, comet tails, interstellar clouds), and biological environments (e.g. damaged biological tissues when high-energy radiation interacts with a living cell).
Such processes have long attracted the attention of the scientific community, as shown by the large number of papers and review articles on this topic, and some specific features make them very interesting from a fundamental point of view in Physical Chemistry and Chemical Physics. However, many applications to important fields like radiation chemistry, plasma physics and chemistry, combustion processes, and the development of laser sources, are also possible.
In particular, the conversion of CO2 by non-thermal plasma technology has gained increasing interest in the last years due to a number of potential advantages, like working at room temperature with no switch-on inertia, or the possibility of obtaining value-added products, like gaseous or liquid fuels, from carbon dioxide with the addition of a hydrogen source (e.g. H2O, H2, CH4 or other hydrocarbons). Such characteristics make this a promising candidate as a technology for the storage of electrical energy from renewable and intermittent sources into chemical energy.
This high-quality article collection serves as an occasion to pay tribute to Davide Bassi, James M. Farrar, and Franco Vecchiocattivi for their relevant contributions over the last 40 years in the field of atomic and molecular collisions, as well as reaction dynamics involving ions, radicals, neutral, and excited species.
Such processes have long attracted the attention of the scientific community, as shown by the large number of papers and review articles on this topic, and some specific features make them very interesting from a fundamental point of view in Physical Chemistry and Chemical Physics. However, many applications to important fields like radiation chemistry, plasma physics and chemistry, combustion processes, and the development of laser sources, are also possible.
In particular, the conversion of CO2 by non-thermal plasma technology has gained increasing interest in the last years due to a number of potential advantages, like working at room temperature with no switch-on inertia, or the possibility of obtaining value-added products, like gaseous or liquid fuels, from carbon dioxide with the addition of a hydrogen source (e.g. H2O, H2, CH4 or other hydrocarbons). Such characteristics make this a promising candidate as a technology for the storage of electrical energy from renewable and intermittent sources into chemical energy.
This high-quality article collection serves as an occasion to pay tribute to Davide Bassi, James M. Farrar, and Franco Vecchiocattivi for their relevant contributions over the last 40 years in the field of atomic and molecular collisions, as well as reaction dynamics involving ions, radicals, neutral, and excited species.
Keywords: Ions, Radicals, Plasma chemistry
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
