Plasma | Interview with One of the Authors—Dr. Dariusz Korzec

Dr. Dariusz Korzec is one of the authors of the highly cited article entitled “Hybrid Dielectric Barrier Discharge Reactor: Characterization for Ozone Production” published in Plasma (ISSN: 2571-6182). The following is an interview with Dr. Korzec:

1. Can you tell me a bit about your background and what your research focuses on?
I got a PhD in electrical engineering, but for 40 years, my research has been related to different types of plasma. Currently, I am involved in industrial research and development focused on the plasma tools for the generation and application of cold atmospheric plasmas.

2. What made you decide to publish a plasma article? Why did you choose the Plasma journal?
I have noticed that by looking for information, I am finding what I was looking for in Plasma. This fact inspired me to consider this journal for my publications as well.

3. What was your experience publishing with our journal?
My first experience with MDPI was so good that all my subsequent manuscripts have been submitted to MDPI. One paper was published in Polymers, and seven in Plasma.

4. Was it important to you that the journal is open access? How does open access publishing advance the field of plasma?
It was essential for me that the journal is open access. In my opinion, all publications should be available for free. It accelerates the research and improves its quality. The payment of the APC by authors/researchers is fair, because their research is financed somehow, and the publication can be foreseen in the research budget.

5. What do you hope that readers will get from your paper?
My papers focus on new methods of plasma generation and are dedicated to people using such plasma tools. Developing new plasma applications requires a good understanding of the plasma tool used. I am trying to understand them and to share this understanding with readers.

6. What critical scientific or engineering problems did your research initially aim to address?
The origin of this research is the need for precise control of chemistry in the air plasma, which is important for many medical and microorganic applications.

7. What are the current bottlenecks in this field, and how did you identify your research’s breakthrough point?
Very important is the reproducibility of the experiments. The improvements in the hardware and in the plasma control allowed for good results.

8. Have your experiments or theoretical models undergone significant adjustments? What motivated those changes?
A very crucial role in our understanding of plasma plays the diagnostic tools. It is important to follow the very fast progress in this field. New measurement techniques extend our understanding of the complex processes in plasmas. An important issue is the improvement in the affordability of complex diagnostic systems.

9. Are there any untold “behind-the-scenes” stories worth sharing about this work?
In the first version of our manuscript, its coverage was much broader, related to both ozone and RONS. But the referees pointed out a strong weakness in our approach. As a consequence, the manuscript was divided into two parts and enriched with undisclosed results. The first part is the paper about the ozone production in the HDBD reactor. The second, published recently, is about RONS diagnostics. I think the review system in MDPI Plasma works quite well and allows for keeping the high level of publications.

10. Why do you think this article has been highly cited?
It describes several things that are quite new. The presented hybrid DBD reactor is innovative. The Peltier cooling is used for temperature control. The analysis of the results for different gases and air humidities is interesting for many upcoming applications. The novel plasma control technique is presented. These items make this paper interesting.

11. Are there follow-up studies planned based on this paper’s findings?
As already mentioned, the second part was recently published, of course, in MDPI Plasma.

12. Did your research involve cross-disciplinary collaboration? How did teamwork shape the outcomes?
Yes, since we are quite specialized, we need cooperation for plasma diagnostics and for applications. In the study about the HDBD reactor, we have cooperated with the institute INNOVENT in Jena.

13. How did early career researchers or students contribute to this work?
Our company supervises many student projects, both bachelor's and master's theses. We are doing it in cooperation with local academic institutions in Regensburg, Germany.

14. What was the greatest technical or theoretical challenge during this research, and how did you overcome it?
One of the technical problems was the strong corrosion of electrodes in the very aggressive plasma environment. By testing many materials, we have found the proper one.

15. Were there difficulties in data acquisition or experimental reproducibility? How were they resolved?
No, the data acquisition was completely automated, allowing for high reproducibility – of course, after solving the problems with corroding electrodes.

16. Did ethical concerns arise? How were they addressed?
This was a development of new technology, which can be used for healing or for killing. Ethical concern arises among users of this technology.

17. Which technological directions in plasma deserve the most attention over the next 5 years?
My current plasma work is restricted to the cold atmospheric pressure plasma. In this field, I expect the continuation of interest in the crossover between plasma and biosciences: plasma medicine, plasma agriculture, and so on.

18. How is AI reshaping plasma research in disruptive ways?
A colleague of mine has used AI very intensively for writing his manuscript on applications of ozone for sterilization and disinfection. I got it for proofreading. It contained numerous very interesting-sounding references. I tried to collect some of them. I have encountered problems. One after another, I could not find them. The fact was that the AI-generated references, which sounded very probable and wise, did not exist. The early AI system simply did not understand what a reference is.

19. What learning resources would you recommend for newcomers entering this field?
For studying the basics, there is nothing better than a good handbook. For example, the Plasma Chemistry written by Alexander Fridman. The endless source of factual knowledge is Wikipedia. But I also admire the AI-biased answers of Google on precisely formulated questions, of course, only if information sources are well-documented.