Initiation of pulsed corona discharge under supercritical conditions

Supercritical carbon dioxide is a medium with unique properties and variety of applications in modern green chemistry. The generation of pulsed corona discharge in supercritical CO/sub 2/ is studied experimentally for point-to-plane and wire-to-plane geometries. The low breakdown voltages recorded near the critical point are attributed to peculiarities of electron kinetics in a medium characterized by high spatial inhomogeneity and enhanced cluster formation.