Plasma treatment of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contaminated water is a potentially energy efficient remediation method. In this treatment, an atmospheric pressure plasma interacts with surface-resident PFAS molecules. Developing a reaction mechanism and modeling of plasma-PFAS interactions requires fundamental data for electron-molecule reactions. In this paper, we present results of electron scattering calculations, potential energy landscapes and their implications for plasma modelling of a dielectric barrier discharge in PFAS contaminated gases, a first step towards modelling of plasma-water-PFAS intereactions. It is found that the plasma degradation of PFAS is dominated by dissociative electron attachment with the importance of other contributing processes varying depending on the molecule. All molecules posses a large number of shape resonances - transient negative ion states - from near-threshold up to ionization threshold. These states lie in the region of the most probable electron energies in the plasma (4-5 eV) and consequently are expected to further enhance the fragmentation dynamics in both dissociative attachment and dissociative excitation.

Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science University of Michigan Ann Arbor MI 48109 USA

Division of Physical Chemistry Ruđer Bošković Institute Bijenička cesta 54 10000 Zagreb Croatia

Faculty of Mathematics and Physics Charles University Institute of Theoretical Physics 5 Holešovičkách 2 18000 Prague Czech Republic

Quantemol Ltd 320 City Rd London EC1V 2NZ UK

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