Time-resolved optical emission spectroscopic measurements of He plasma induced by a high-power CO2 pulsed laser

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy of helium plasma, initially at room temperature and pressures ranging from 12 to 101 kPa was investigated using a transverse excitation atmospheric CO₂ pulsed laser (λ = 9.621 and 10.591 μm, a full width at half maximum of 64 ns, and an intensity from 1.5 to 5.36 GW cm⁻²). The helium breakdown spectrum is mainly due to electronic relaxation of excited He, He⁺ and H. Plasma characteristics were examined in detail on the emission lines of He and He⁺ by the time-integrated and time-resolved optical emission spectroscopy technique. Optical breakdown threshold intensities, ionization degree and plasma temperatures were obtained. An auxiliary metal mesh target was used to analyze the temporal evolution of the species in the plasma. The results show a faster decay of the continuum emission and He⁺ species than in the case of neutral He atoms. The velocity and kinetic energy distributions for He and He⁺ species were obtained from time-of-flight measurements. Electron density in the laser-induced plasma was estimated from the analysis of spectral data at various times from the laser pulse incidence. Temporal evolution of electron density has been used for the estimation of the three-body electron-ion recombination rate constant.     

Maximization of yield of C-13 isotope by multiphoton dissociation of Freon-22 using high average power TEA CO2 laser

Selective multi-photon dissociation (MPD) of Freon-22 (CF₂HC1) molecules has been carried out using a TEA CO₂ laser at various CO₂ laser lines (9P(20)-9P(26)) in order to maximize the yield of C-13 isotope in the product (C₂F₄) at an enrichment factor of 100. The effects of laser pulse tail due to the presence of N₂ in the laser mixture on the enrichment factor and yield of C-13 are investigated. It is found that the addition of a small amount of N₂ is possible in the laser mixture without a significant drop in the yield at desired enrichment factor. Addition of a small amount of N₂ improves the laser efficiency considerably. At a given pulse energy, a slight change in the near field intensity distribution of a laser severely affects the selectivity of C-13 isotope. The computed far-field intensity distributions of the measured near-field intensities show marked spatial variation in the focal spots that leads to a drop in selectivity. For macroscopic production of C-13 isotope a simple and novel multi-pass cavity has been designed and tested to focus the energy repeatedly keeping the optimum fluence constant at each focal spot.     

低阶煤半焦利用热重在O2/CO2、O2/N2和O2/Ar气氛下燃烧特性研究

利用热重研究了两种中国西北典型低阶煤半焦的燃烧特性。探究了不同气氛（O₂/CO₂、O₂/N₂和O₂/Ar）和不同氧气浓度对其燃烧特性的影响。实验结果表明,无论是反应气氛还是氧气浓度都会对低阶煤半焦的燃烧产生影响。相比于N₂和Ar,CO₂明显有利于燃烧反应进行：当反应气氛由O₂/CO₂变为O₂/Ar时,两种不同低阶煤半焦的燃尽温度分别升高了63.7和68.8℃;而当反应气氛由O₂/CO₂变为O₂/N₂时,两种不同低阶煤半焦的燃尽温度分别升高了135.9和129.6℃。在研究范围内,氧气浓度的提高也能明显提高半焦的燃烧性能。与此同时,半焦燃烧特性的动力学分析表明,随着氧气浓度提高,两种半焦燃烧反应的表观活化能E和指前因子A均呈增大趋势。通过对E和A两者关系的分析结果表明,半焦富氧燃烧的活化能和指前因子存在动力学补偿效应。     

Surface modification of LDPE film by CO2 pulsed laser irradiation

The influence of the pulsed CO₂ laser irradiation on the surface structure of the LDPE film was investigated. Significant changes were observed on the surface of laser treated films as it was verified by the attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and contact angle-measurement. Formation of polar functional groups onto the LDPE surfaces exhibited by the ATR-FTIR spectra was shown to be strongly dependent on the number of the CO₂ laser pulses. The intensity of the polar groups increased with increasing the number of pulses up to two and then slightly decreased at three laser pulses. This was also confirmed with the contact angle measurements in which the sample subjected to two laser pulses showed the highest wettability i.e. the lowest water drop contact angle. The concentration of peroxide groups formed on the surface of the laser treated films was determined quantitatively by UV spectroscopic method using iodide procedure. The latter results showed a similar trend with the results obtained using FTIR spectroscopy.     

Removal of high concentration CO2 from natural gas at elevated pressure via absorption process in packed column

Carbon dioxide (CO2) removal is an essential step in natural gas (NG) processing to provide high quality gas stream products and minimize operational difficulties. This preliminary study aims to investigate the removal of CO2 at high concentration level from the mixture of CO2-NG gas stream at elevated pressure via absorption process. This is to explore the possibility of exploring high CO2 content natural gas reserves by treatment at offshore platform. A mixed amine solvent, Stonvent-II, was used for the absorption of approximately 75 vol% CO2 in CO2-NG stream at a pressure of 10 barg. The initial solvent temperature was varied in order to study the impact of initial temperature on the absorption performance. Preliminary study at temperatures of 35°C and 45°C indicates that Stonvent-II was able to perform almost 100% removal of CO2 under both conditions. However, the CO2 absorption effect took place faster when the initial liquid temperature was lower. This is because when the initial liquid temperature is high, the temperature increase in the packing bed caused by the reaction heat is high which impacts the efficiency of absorption negatively.