Search

Deleterious chlorine fluorescence was found to occur at the same frequency as the Raman scattering of O2(1Δ) and O2(3Σ), seriously affecting the O2(1Δ) yield measurement in the reaction of chlorine with basic hydrogen peroxide by use of the Raman spectroscopy technique. To solve this problem we have taken advantage of the fact that Raman radiation is always strongly polarized while fluorescence is essentially non-polarized in a gaseous medium. When chlorine utilization of a singlet oxygen generator is 88%, O2(1Δ) yield reaches (42.4±7.4)% with the effect of chlorine fluorescence completely eliminated.

An attempt is made to produce gas-phase singlet oxygen O2(a1Δg) in a liquid-liquid reaction between acidic hydrogen peroxide (AHP) and sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl). The attempt arises from the fact that basic hydrogen peroxide (BHP) has long been the prime source for producing singlet delta oxygen through its reaction with chlorine. However, BHP suffers from the defect of being unstable during storage. Exploratory experiments were performed in a centrifugal flow singlet oxygen generator (CF-SOG) with two streams of solutions, AHP and NaOCl, mixed in a slit nozzle and then injected into the arc-shaped concavity in the CF-SOG to form a rotating liquid flow with a remarkable centrifugal force. With the help of this centrifugal force, the product of the O2(1Δ) reaction was quickly separated from the liquid phase. The gas-phase O2(1Δ) was detected via the spectrum of O2(1Δ) cooperative dimolecular emission with a CCD spectrograph. Experimental results show that it is feasible to produce gas-phase O2(1Δ) from the AHP + NaOCl reaction, and the stronger the acidity, the more efficient the O2(1Δ) production. However, since in the AHP + NaOCl reaction, Cl2 unavoidably appears as a byproduct, its catalytic action on the decomposition of H2O2 into ground-state O2 remains a major obstacle to utilising the AHP + NaOCl reaction in producing gas-phase O2(1Δ). Qualitative interpretation shows that the AHP + NaOCl reaction is virtually the reaction of interaction of molecular H2O2 with molecular HOCl, its mechanism being analogous to that of reaction of BHP with Cl2, where HOOCl is the key intermediate. It is difficult to form the intermediate HOOCl via the H2O2 + NaOCl reaction in a basic medium, thus gas-phase O2(1Δ) cannot be obtained in appreciable quantities.

In a jet-type singlet oxygen generator, we have studied the generation of O2(1Δ) via the reaction of chlorine gas with aqueous basic hydrogen peroxide (BHP) and with basic deuterium peroxide (BDP)....

By using the concept of a high-pressure, gravity-independent singlet oxygen generator (SOG) proposed by Emanuel and based on the principle that a rotating fluid is capable of producing an enormous centrifugal force, a novel-type centrifugal-flow singlet oxygen generator (CFSOG) was designed and constructed. In this device, O2(1Δ) was generated in the reaction of gaseous Cl2 with a rotating basic hydrogen peroxide (BHP) liquid flow and then was removed from the BHP liquid phase by the centrifugal force. Meanwhile, the microdroplets formed during the Cl2+BHP reaction were removed from the O2(1Δ) gas flow by the centrifugal force produced by the high-speed flow along an arc-shaped channel. Preliminary investigations showed that, because the specific reactive surface area of this SOG was noticeably larger than that of the jet-SOG normally used in current chemical oxygen–iodine lasers (COILs), the O2(1Δ) yield of ~60%, the O2(1Δ) partial pressure as high as 31 Torr, and chlorine utilisation higher than 96% were realised. Moreover, steady operation was obtained.

Non-basic hydrogen peroxide was found to be very easy to react with Cl(2) to produce singlet oxygen O(2)(a(1)Δ(g)) (i.e. the molecular oxygen in its first electronic excited state) when an H(+) absorbent such as C(5)H(5)N, CH(3)COONH(4), HCOONH(4) or NH(4)F was added into H(2)O(2) aqueous solution, and the long concealed fact that molecular H(2)O(2) can react with Cl(2) to produce O(2)(a(1)Δ(g)) was then uncovered. It is only when an H(+) absorbent has provided a stronger base than H(2)O to absorb the H(+) produced during the reaction that O(2)(a(1)Δ(g)) can be produced.