Production of nitric monoxide using pulsed discharges for a medical application

Nitric monoxide (NO) is widely used in medical treatment of acute respirato ry distress syndrome (ARDS). The production of NO is of interest to the med ical community. In the present work, NO is generated by pulsed discharges b etween two rod electrodes in a mixture of nitrogen and oxygen. An are disch arge having a temperature of about 10 000 K was produced, which was suffici ent to generate NO. Some of the important parameters affecting the producti on of NO have been investigated. These include the percentage of O-2 (6-94% ) in the mixture of N-2 and O-2, the energy of the discharge (0.5-12 J/puls e), the pulse repetition rate (0.5-4.5 pps) and the flow rate (1.35-5.4 l/m in) of the gas mixture. NO2 produced in the discharge was successfully chan ged to NO using a heated molybdenum tube. NO2 must be extracted from the ga s before clinical inhalation. The concentration of ozone was completely eli minated by bubbling the gas mixture through water. A maximum of NO and a mi nimum of NO2 concentrations were generated when the proportion of O-2 in th e gas mixture was in the range of 20-27%. The concentrations of NO and NO2 increased with increasing pulse repetition rate and with decreasing flow ra te of the mixture. In all cases, NO2 was effectively removed using a heated molybdenum tube.