The luminance and discharge characteristics of ac PDP may be significantly affected by a small amount of impurity gas in working gas. These impurity gases such as O$_2$, O, C and H$_2$ can be mixed in the manufacturing and /or discharge process. In this paper a small amount of impurity gas in acPDP are introduced quantitatively and the relationship between the amount of impurity gas and the luminance/discharge characteristics are investigated. The luminous efficiency decreased seriously with increase in the partial pressure of impurity gases, especially in H$_2$, O$_2$ and CO$_2$. Under the condition of the impurity gas ratio of 2${ imes}$10$^$-3/ for Ar, N2, H$_2$, CO$_2$ and O$_2$, the luminous efficiency decreased about 8%, 8%, 32%, 36% and 50%, respectively.