Combustion of hydrogen and hydrocarbons in fluorine. Final report, 1 August 1984-31 July 1989

Technical Report · Sun Sep 03 04:00:00 EDT 1989

OSTI ID:7151063

Kaufman, M

This program is directed towards increasing understanding of combustion processes in general, as well as advancing the application of fluorine-supported combustion in areas such as propulsion and chemical lasers. Since fluorine is monovalent, combustion in fluorine is chemically much simpler than combustion in oxygen. However, in fluorine-based combustion most of the energy is initially deposited into vibration (of HF), and transfer of energy from vibrationally excited species must be considered. Experiments in H2-F2 flames to which very small amounts of methane have been added are particularly revealing and indicate that the most-likely mechanism for explaining luminescence from CH and CHF radicals in these flames is vibration-to-electronic energy transfer from highly vibrationally excited HF. C2 emission probably results from the CH + CH yields C2* + H2 reaction. These conclusions suggest that the ratio I(CH)/(ICH2)1/2 is a useful diagnostic for vibrationally excited HF in H2-F2 propulsion and laser systems. Ionization is not intrinsic to fluorine-hydrocarbon combustion, but often results from oxygen impurity in fluorine. Fluorine combustion systems show a variety of nonsteady behaviors, which are postulated to be due to changes in concentrations of vibrationally excited species in the system. The method of kinetic titrations was developed to obtain stoichiometric, kinetic, and mechanistic information about chemical reactions.

• Research Organization: Emory Univ., Atlanta, GA (USA). Dept. of Biology
• OSTI ID: 7151063
• Report Number(s): AD-A-214621/5/XAB
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
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ALKANES
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
CHEMICAL LASERS
CHEMICAL REACTION KINETICS
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COMBUSTION KINETICS
DOCUMENT TYPES
ELEMENTS
ENERGY LEVELS
ENERGY TRANSFER
ENERGY-LEVEL TRANSITIONS
EXCITATION
EXCITED STATES
FLAMES
FLUORINE
FUELS
HALOGENS
HYDROCARBONS
HYDROGEN
IMPURITIES
IONIZATION
KINETICS
LASERS
LUMINESCENCE
METHANE
NONMETALS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXYGEN
PROGRESS REPORT
QUANTITATIVE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
REACTION KINETICS
STOICHIOMETRY
VIBRATIONAL STATES
VOLUMETRIC ANALYSIS