Dans le cadre des mardis de la chimie, Sorbonne Université propose une conférence de Anne BOURDON et Pietro PARODI intitulée "Towards a better knowledge of iodine plasma chemistry : a key challenge for the propulsion of future satellites", qui se tiendra mardi 13 octobre 2026.

Résumé

Since a few years, Xenon which is commonly used as propellant for electric propulsion applications becomes resource-critical. Among the potential alternatives to xenon, iodine could play a key role in the coming years. However, the chemistry of iodine plasmas is much more complex than the one of xenon with excited molecules and atoms, atomic and molecular positive and negative ions and electrons. At the laboratory of plasma physics, since 2014, low-pressure iodine plasmas in conditions relevant for electric propulsion applications have been studied experimentally by combining different electrical and optical diagnostics. To compare with these experimental data, more recently, different models have been developed to simulate low-pressure iodine plasmas. In these models one of the key part is the set of reactions and cross sections. In this talk, we present recent results obtained on the experimental/modeling comparison in different low-pressure iodine plasmas. Then, we use the comparison with experiments in low-pressure iodine plasmas to identify key processes in the current reaction set of iodine that need to be further investigated.

Conférenciers

Anne Bourdon is Director of Research at CNRS at the laboratory of Plasma Physics (LPP UMR 7648 CNRS, Ecole polytechnique, Sorbonne Université). In 2000 she received the bronze medal of CNRS. Her main research field is on the modeling and simulations of low-temperature plasma physics. In 1995, she obtained a PhD degree in Physics at the university of Rouen (France) for her work on the numerical simulation of high enthalpy flows for reentry applications. In 1996 she obtained a CNRS research scientist position at CORIA-UMR6614, University of Rouen. Between 2001 and 2003, she worked as a CNRS research scientist at the automobile research and innovation center of PSA Peugeot Citröen in Vélizy-Villacoublay on innovative plasma projects for automobile applications. From 2003 to 2014, she worked at the laboratory EM2C, UPR CNRS 288, Ecole Centrale Paris. In September 2014, she joined the LPP laboratory. She is currently director of COMHET, a jointlaboratory with Safran, CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique and Sorbonne Université on Hall effect thrusters for electric propulsion applications. She has published 116 articles (h index = 50), 4 patents, and given 30 invited talks at international conferences.

Pietro Parodi is a postdoctoral researcher at LPP. He specializes in numerical methods for the simulation of plasma. His current work focuses on the modeling and simulation of iodine experiments related to electric propulsion. He received his M.Sc. degree from the University of Pisa, a Research Master in fluid dynamics from the von Karman Institute, and his PhD in Science - Mathematics from KU Leuven, Belgium.