Atmospheric-pressure dielectric barrier discharge generation by a full-bridge flying capacitor multilevel inverter

A new configuration of a resonant full-bridge flying capacitor multicell inverter has been designed and constructed with the aim of achieving an extended output voltage frequency range with low harmonic distortion and reduced semiconductor commutation losses. This configuration was tested as a power supply for two different coaxial dielectric barrier discharge reactors, one of them employed for electric characterization and the other one for inorganic compound elimination in an aqueous solution. Two different gas mixtures, 90% Ar–10% O₂ and 80% Ar–20% O₂, were individually supplied during the experiments; the results showed a highefficiency removal of meta-cresol (m-cresol) to the order of 98%, which was obtained by adding more oxygen to the plasma gas mixture.