plasma cutter/liquid nitrogen

[Molten]

Is it possible to combine the two? Would it cause an explosion. Plasma is technically just super-heated particles, so could you super heat liquid nitrogen to turn it into plasma? Would it still have it's freezing effect? Just curious about this. Seeing as nobody will give me liquid nitrogen or a plasma cutter to play with, I was wondering if anyone knew any of these answers.

[Greg Needel]

Originally Posted by Molten

Is it possible to combine the two? Would it cause an explosion. Plasma is technically just super-heated particles, so could you super heat liquid nitrogen to turn it into plasma? Would it still have it's freezing effect? Just curious about this. Seeing as nobody will give me liquid nitrogen or a plasma cutter to play with, I was wondering if anyone knew any of these answers.

the simple answer is no It won't explode. Liquid nitrogen is just nitrogen that is in it's liquid state. I know that seems like circular logic but basically if you super heated liquid nitrogen you would just get hot nitrogen.

I don't know the specifics of making something plasma but my guess would be no considering Nitrogen is an inert gas.

[Jeff Pahl]

At the temperatures involved with plasma cutting of 10,000 degrees C or greater, the liquid nitrogen would become gaseous nitrogen very quickly.

From http://www.mwsco.com/kb/kb_frameset.asp?ArticleID=64 which is a pretty good explanantion of the plasma cutting process: "The different gases used for plasma arc cutting include nitrogen, argon, air, oxygen, and mixtures of nitrogen/hydrogen and argon/hydrogen." So yes, you can use straight gaseous nitrogen for plasma cutting, although most of the "garden variety" units I have used over the years have used plain compressed air (which is still mostly nitrogen). The other gasses tend to be used for specialized applications.