| Abstract: | Trifluoroiodomethane(CF_3I) and its mixtures are believed to be prospective alternatives to sulfur hexafluoride(SF6), which has been included as a greenhouse gas. In this paper, the breakdown properties of a CF_3I/N_2/CO_2 mixture with the volume fraction of CF_3I fixed at 10% are investigated under power frequency and lightning impulse voltages. The experimental result shows that N_2 possesses higher power frequency and negative lightning impulse breakdown voltages than CO_2, but the power frequency and more negative lightning impulse breakdown voltages of the CF_3I/N_2/CO_2 mixture do not increase with the content of N_2. For the purpose of explaining this abnormal phenomenon, the ionization energies and excitation energies of CF_3I,N_2and CO_2 are calculated. The computation results indicate that the ionization energy of CF_3I is lower than the first excitation energy of N_2, but higher than the lowest excitation energy of CO_2,which means that CF_3I molecules are easily ionized by metastable N_2 molecules. The first excitation energy of N_2 is too high, which hinders its application as the buffer gas of CF_3I. |
