Preliminary study of a centrifugal-flow singlet oxygen generator

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. (laser components)