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Title: Multipass optical detection in reflected shock waves: Application to OH radicals

Journal Article · · Review of Scientific Instruments
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1145302· OSTI ID:116032
; ; ;  [1]
  1. Chemistry Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439 (United States)

An UV multipass optical absorption method to increase the sensitivity for radical species detection has been developed for high temperature chemical kinetics experiments in a shock tube. The specific illustration is for OH radicals in the reflected shock wave regime. With a resonance lamp source, 12 optical passes were found to give a sufficient signal-to-noise ratio for a large range of [OH]. Two different calibration procedures using the reaction systems H{sub 2}/O{sub 2} and C{sub 2}H{sub 5}I/NO{sub 2} were used, and a curve of growth was determined. The measured absorbance (ABS), was found to be dependent on both temperature and [OH]. The results can be expressed in a modified Beer`s law form as,(ABS)=9.49{times}10{sup {minus}12}{ital T}{sup {minus}0.5281}[OH]{sup 0.8736}.Using this curve of growth, the absorbance data from the above kinetics experiments were converted to concentration profiles. These were fully modeled with previously established mechanisms, giving excellent fits. The multipass method is compared to earlier systems that used both resonance lamp and laser absorption sources, and the increase in sensitivity is found to be substantial due primarily to the increased path length. This increased sensitivity inhibits the effects of any possible secondary chemistry thereby allowing chemically isolated experiments on OH + molecules to be performed at high temperatures. {copyright} {ital 1995} {ital American} {ital Institute} {ital of} {ital Physics}.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
W-31109-ENG-38
OSTI ID:
116032
Journal Information:
Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 66, Issue 9; Other Information: PBD: Sep 1995
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English