Gas-discharge current in a mixture of zeolite and silicon powders

The I–V characteristics of a zeolite (clinoptilolite)-10% silicon powder mixture at different air pressures in the chamber are taken. In a constant electric field, the current is found to be stationary in contrast to pure zeolite powder, where the current decays with time. In the case of the stationary current, the I–V characteristic consists of a high-resistivity portion at low voltages and a low-resistivity portion at high voltages. The latter portion is identified as the gas-discharge current. A discharge initiation mechanism in which silicon particles play a decisive role is suggested.