Plasma properties and arc decaying characteristics of perfluoromethyl vinyl ether (C3F6O) as new eco-friendly arc quenching medium

Abstract Perfluoromethyl vinyl ether (PMVE, C 3 F 6 O) has recently been identified as a new promising alternative to SF 6 . To obtain priori knowledge of the arc quenching ability of C 3 F 6 O mixtures, the arc plasma properties including particle composition, thermodynamic properties, transport coefficients and net emission coefficient (NEC) are calculated for C 3 F 6 O and its mixtures with N 2 and CO 2 . The effects of buffer gases and pressure on these properties are analyzed. It is found that, C 3 F 6 O and its mixtures with N 2 can recombine to their original forms without forming solid carbon deposits during arc extinction, a distinct advantage over common SF 6 replacements like C 4 F 7 N and C 5 F 10 O. However, C 3 F 6 O–CO 2 mixtures cannot return to their original form after arc quenching, regardless of CO 2 proportion. Additionally, increasing CO 2 content significantly reduces the electrical conductivity of the mixture, even below that of pure CO 2 . In contrast, N 2 addition has minimal impact on the electrical conductivity and NEC of the C 3 F 6 O-N 2 mixture. Using these plasma properties, a one-dimensional arc model based on the time-dependent Elenbaas–Heller equation is developed to analyze the arc decaying characteristics. The arc decay process is divided into two stages: thermal recovery and pre-dielectric recovery. It is concluded that pure C 3 F 6 O exhibits poor recovery performance, while mixtures with low buffer gas proportions demonstrate suboptimal recovery.