What are the 4 States of Matter ?
Plasma – The Fourth Physical State
A plasma is understood as an ionized gas composed of a mixture of ions, electrons and neutral particles. These particles are in constant contact with each other and with photons of different energies or excitation states.
Plasma, also known as the plasma state, is often referred to as the fourth state of aggregation, along with solids, liquids, and gases.
Because it has specific properties that are not present in substances in all three states of aggregation. There are.
Plasma can be created in many ways and is also present in nature.
It is used in a variety of ways and plays an important role in controlled nuclear fusion studies. The subfield of physics that deals with the production and properties of plasma is known as plasma physics.
Properties and Classification of Plasma
A plasma consists of ions and electrons, but is almost neutral in its entirety. This means: on average it has the same number of positive and negative charges.
It has great electrical conductivity and behaves diamagnetically from a magnetic point of view. It is affected by electric and magnetic fields due to electrically charged particles.
The specific heat capacity of plasma is highly temperature dependent and reflects a sequence of maxima produced by single, double or triple ionization.
Plasma can be classified in several ways. After the pressure in the plasma, it splits into high-pressure plasma and low-pressure plasma, with normal atmospheric pressure taken as the reference pressure.
On the basis of electron concentration, a distinction is made between thin plasma and dense plasma. Thin plasmas are those that have less than 100 electrons per cubic metre.
Dense plasmas are those that have more than 108 electrons per cubic metre. Based on the temperature of the plasma, a distinction is made between cold plasma (T>105K) and hot plasma (T>106K).
Critical plasma states are stationary plasma, that is, plasma that remains in the same state for a longer period of time. A homogeneous plasma is characterized.
By the fact that there is an almost constant concentration of charge carriers in a region of volume. A fully ionized plasma contains only charged particles. Neutral particles are largely absent.
The Presence or Production of Plasma
Plasma occurs in various places in nature, including: lightning, electric sparks or flames. It is found in the upper layers of the atmosphere.
As an interstellar gas in space, in the stellar atmosphere and also within stars.
The positive column used in fluorescent tubes, the glow discharge and arcing in luminescent lamps were also plasma.
In the laboratory, plasma is usually generated by strong gas discharge in cylindrical or tubular tubes. At high temperatures of several million degrees Celsius.
All matter evaporates and ionization leads to the formation of free electrons and ions from neutral atoms or molecules.
For the production of very hot plasmas, such as those required in nuclear fusion studies.
The plasma can be heated by an electric current. Due to the resistance brought by the plasma to the current flow, it heats up.
The process is known as ohmic heating. This means that today temperatures can be reached around 107K. Heating by high frequency methods is also possible.
Use of Plasma
Plasma play an important role in lighting technology. Plasma is excited in fluorescent tubes and fluorescent tubes and the light produced is used for illumination.
In the technical field, fine plasma jets are used, for example, for cutting (plasma cutting), welding (plasma welding) and drilling (plasma drilling).
Plasma propulsion units (magnetohydrodynamic propulsion units) can be used as special low-power rocket motors. A high temperature plasma has accelerated by the LORENTZ force.
Plasma is particularly important for controlled nuclear fusion studies. For this purpose the plasma is surrounded by magnetic fields so that it does not come into contact with the walls.
Therefore it can be heated to very high temperatures. A chamber in which nuclear fusion experiments with plasma are performed according to the Tokamak principle, in which a plasma ring is formed.
It is a test facility operated by the European Atomic Energy Community (Eurotom), located in Culham, near Oxford (England). Detailed information on nuclear fusion can be found in a separate article under this keyword.
Plasma in its Natural form:
Northern Lights
Plasma technology is based on a simple physical principle. When energy is supplied the state of aggregation changes: solid becomes liquid, liquid becomes gaseous.
If more energy is supplied to the gas now, it becomes ionized and converts to the higher energy plasma state as the fourth physical state.
Plasma was not discovered until 1928 by Irving Langmuir. This is not particularly rare, on the contrary: more than 99% of the visible matter in the universe is in a state of plasma.
On land, it occurs in its natural form, for example during lightning or as the polar light in the Arctic and Antarctic. During a solar eclipse, plasma can be seen as a ring of shining light around the Sun.
Energy is contributed by the physical states solid, liquid, gas. If excess energy is combined with a gaseous substance by an electrical discharge, plasma is created.
Plasma Energy is Changing the World
Plasma characterizes matter at high and unstable energy levels. When exposed to solids such as plastics and metals, the applied plasma energy affects surfaces and alters important surface properties such as surface energy.
In the construction industry, this principle is used for targeted modification of material properties. Pretreatment with openair plasma.
Energy results in a remarkable and precisely adjustable increase in the viscosity and wettability of surfaces. On an industrial scale.
Completely new materials (even non-polar ones) can be used, as well as environmentally friendly and solvent-free paints and adhesives (without VOCs). Many chemical pretreatment processes can now be replaced by openair plasma pretreatment.
Plasma Treatment for Almost all Industrial Sectors
Due to the simplicity of application and inline integration, plasma processing has been used for many years in almost all industrial sectors such.
As automotive engineering, transportation, electronics manufacturing, packaging technology, consumer goods, life sciences, textiles and new energy.
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