Direct In Situ Quantification of HO2 from a Flow Reactor
Brian Brumfield1, Wenting Sun1, Yiguang Ju1
1†Department of Electrical Engineering and ‡Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, Engineering Quadrangle, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, United States.
Abstract:
The first direct in situ measurements of hydroperoxyl radical (HO2) at atmospheric pressure from the exit of a laminar flow reactor have been carried out using mid-infrared Faraday rotation spectroscopy. HO2 was generated by oxidation of dimethyl ether, a potential renewable biofuel with a simple molecular structure but rich low-temperature oxidation chemistry. On the basis of the results of nonlinear fitting of the experimental data to a theoretical spectroscopic model, the technique offers an estimated sensitivity of <1 ppmv over a reactor exit temperature range of 398-673 K. Accurate in situ measurement of this species will aid in quantitative modeling of low-temperature and high-pressure combustion kinetics.
