Inverse effects of the gas feed positioning on sonochemistry and sonoluminescence

Purging of solutions to enhance sonochemical reactions is a common practice. A fundamental study combining sonoluminescence spectroscopy and sonochemical activity is adopted to study the effects of continuous Ar gas flow in the solution and of the position of the gas inlet tube on high-frequency sonolysis of aqueous solutions. It has been observed that neither sonochemical activity nor sonoluminescence intensity is controlled by the gas solubility only. Besides, the change in position of the gas inlet tube leads to opposite effects in sonoluminescence intensity and sonochemical activity: while the former increases, the latter decreases. Such an observation has never been reported despite sonochemical reactions have been carried out under different gas environments. Sonoluminescence spectroscopy indicates that more extreme conditions are reached at collapse with the gas inlet on the side, which could be explained by a more symmetrical collapse. Finally, it is shown in certain conditions that it is possible to favor the formation of some sonochemical products simply by positioning the gas inlet at different positions, which has practical significance in designing large scale sonochemical reactors for industrial applications.