From: "Steve Gerdemann" <gerdeman@alrc.doe.gov>
Newsgroups: sci.physics.plasma
Subject: Plasma Quench Technology
Organization: D.O.E.


A number of people have proposed that by rapidly quenching a plasma it is
possible to produce non equilibrium conditions. For example by heating TiCl4
to 5000K in a plasma the TiCl4 breaks into Ti and Cl. Then all you have to
do is quench the material very rapidly (say in an adiabatic expansion) to
get Ti metal. I don't think this is possible because the Ti and Cl will back
react on the cool down. It seems to me that the only way for the Ti atom to
cool is to through either radiation or collision with another atom. But
radiation would not be fast enough and collision would result in reaction.

Is this correct or am I missing something? Is it possible to calculate the
cooling rate required to limit back reaction to say.1%. Is there a good book
or other source that will help me understand this.

Thanks
Steve Gerdemann