Expansion causes the cooling but it doesn't cause the particles to loose their charge.-Correct. Ionic plasma is the first stage after the BB. And I closely agree with Matt's explanations. The plasma articles you referred me to are 25 years old which means the underlyig info presented is even older. More up-to-date info is much more important, as concepts change so quickly. All of my cosmologic readings have been from 1990 onward.