ELECTRODE CONDITIONING IN AN ELECTRODHYDRODYNAMIC FLUID ACCELERATOR DEVICE

摘要

Conditioning an electrode is performed with a cleaning device (104, 106, 204, 206, 404, 504, 506, 704, 706, 804, 806, 904, 906, 1002) for removing detrimental material or preventing such from forming on electrode surfaces of an electrohydrodynamic device or other ion flow generating device. A conditioning material (304, 810, 910) is deposited on the electrode (102, 202, 302, 508, 708, 808, 908, 1008) to at least partially mitigate erosion, corrosion, oxidations, dendrite formation on the electrode or ozone production. The conditioning material can be deposited by a wearable portion of one or more cleaning blocks or wipers. The cleaning blocks may have a composition selected to be hard enough to remove detrimental material under a selected pressure, while soft enough to be wearable to deposit a conditioning layer on the electrode surface. The conditioning material can be applied as a solid or liquid. The applied conditioning material can include at least one of silver, palladium, platinum, manganese, nickel, zirconium, titanium, tungsten, aluminum, oxides or alloys thereof, carbon, and organometallic materials that decompose under plasma conditions.