This paper deals with the experimental study Of the CO(2) dissociation in a RF plasma torch at low pressure. Experiments have been carried out for different initial conditions in order to Study the influence of the pressure and the power oil the plasma characteristics. Furthermore the emission spectroscopic measurements have been pet-formed at four different locations to investigate the evolution of the plasma chemistry from the creation zone to downstream. The results have confirmed that the CO(2) plasma is in thermal and chemical nonequilibrium. For each condition, we have obtained the estimation of CO and 0 densities oil their ground state from the chemiluminescent emission; and the rebuilding of experimental spectra has provided the species density on their excited states: O(3p(5)P), O(3p(3)P) and CO(B(1)Sigma(+)). The discussion of the experimental data has led to make Out a description of the chemical processes for the CO(2) plasma under dissociation and has highlighted the main role of the vibrational excitation and relaxation on the kinetic mechanisms. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.