A statistical thermodynamic approach to model plasma reactors

Abstract
Three different approaches were adopted to study the gas phase behavior of plasmas. The former is based on a detailed kinetic model, the second on the traditional thermodynamic equilibrium assumption and the latter derives from statistical thermodynamics. In particular, the extension of the statistical fragmentation approach, originally developed for photo-ionization systems, to plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition reactors was considered for the first time. Among the different systems studied were hydrocarbon and chloro-hydrocarbon plasmas. The aim of the work was to develop a reliable statistical thermodynamic approach apt to study the chemical reactivity of plasmas starting only from thermodynamic data. The enthalpies and entropies of formation of the considered compounds were either taken from the literature or calculated through quantum chemistry. Finally the predictions of the three approaches were compared with the available literature data and the advautages and errors implicit in each approach were discussed.