Abstract

Recently, it has been widely reported that some kinds of organic compounds can be degraded by high voltage pulsed discharge in water. The authors proposed a new method to generate plasma in water through the pinhole, which can also efficiently degrade -organic materials (for example phenol) in water.  In the present work, plasma discharge through the pinhole was applied to ihe decoloration of some kinds of dyes. The molecules of the dyes were decomposed and decolored within one or two hours (depending on the dye)  due to the pulse treatment. Decoloiation rate was accelerated by adding hydrogen peroxide. It was concluded that the decoloration was occurring as a result of the attack of high-speed electron and radical reaction in the plasma.