Ultrasound cavitation bubbles

The phenomenon of acoustic cavitation results in an enormous concentration of energy. If one considers the energy density in an acoustic field that produces cavitation and that in the coUapsed cavitation bubble, there is an amplification factor of over eleven orders of magnitude. The enormous local temperatures and pressures so created result in phenomena such as sonochemistry and sonoluminescence and provide a unique means for fundamental studies of chemistry and physics under extreme conditions. A diverse set of apphcations of ultrasound to enhancing chemical reactivity has been explored, with important apphcations in mixed-phase synthesis, materials chemistry, and biomedical uses. 

An interesting way to retard catalyst deactivation is to expose the reaction mixture to ultrasound. Ultrasound treatment of the mixture creates local hot spots, which lead to the formation of cavitation bubbles. These cavitation bubbles bombard the solid, dirty surface leading to the removal of carbonaceous deposits [38]. The ultrasound source can be inside the reactor vessel (ultrasound stick) or ultrasound generators can be placed in contact with the wall of the reactor. Both designs work in practice, and the catalyst lifetime can be essentially prolonged, leading to process intensification. The effects of ultrasound are discussed in detail in a review article [39]. 

In Fig. 1.1, the parameter space for transient and stable cavitation bubbles is shown in R0 (ambient bubble radius) - pa (acoustic amplitude) plane [15]. The ambient bubble radius is defined as the bubble radius when an acoustic wave (ultrasound) is absent. The acoustic amplitude is defined as the pressure amplitude of an acoustic wave (ultrasound). Here, transient and stable cavitation bubbles are defined by their shape stability. This is the result of numerical simulations of bubble pulsations. Above the thickest line, bubbles are those of transient cavitation. Below the thickest line, bubbles are those of stable cavitation. Near the left upper side, there is a region for bubbles of high-energy stable cavitation designated by Stable (strong nf0) . In the brackets, the type of acoustic cavitation noise is indicated. The acoustic cavitation noise is defined as acoustic emissions from... 

Fig. 1.2 Numerically simulated frequency spectra of the hydrophone signal due to acoustic cavitation noise. The driving ultrasound is 515 kHz in frequency and 2.6 bar in pressure amplitude, (a) For stable cavitation bubbles of 1.5 pm in ambient radius, (b) For transient cavitation bubbles of 3 pm in ambient radius. Reprinted from Ultrasonics Sonochemistry, vol. 17, K. Yasui, T. Tuziuti, J. Lee, T. Kozuka, A. Towata, and Y. lida, Numerical simulations of acoustic cavitation noise with the temporal fluctuation in the number of bubbles, pp. 460-472, Copyright (2010), with permission from Elsevier...

The third mechanism for nucleation is the fragmentation of active cavitation bubbles [16]. A shape unstable bubble is fragmented into several daughter bubbles which are new nuclei for cavitation bubbles. Shape instability of a bubble is mostly induced by an asymmetric acoustic environment such as the presence of a neighboring bubble, solid object, liquid surface, or a traveling ultrasound, or an asymmetric liquid container etc. [25-27] Under some condition, a bubble jets many tiny bubbles which are new nuclei [6, 28]. This mechanism is important after acoustic cavitation is fully started. 

Cavitation bubbles work as nucleation sites of particles. For example, in a supercooled sucrose solution, nucleation of ice crystals induced by cavitation bubbles has been experimentally observed [72], This phenomenon has been called sonocrys-tallization [73]. Although there are some papers on the mechanism of sonocrystal-lization, it has not yet been fully understood [74, 75]. It has been reported that the distribution of crystal size in sonocrystallization is narrower than that without ultrasound [73]. It may be related to the narrower size distribution of sonochemi-cally synthesized particles compared to that without ultrasound [76, 77]. Further studies are required for the mechanism of particle nucleation by ultrasound. 

In a bath-type sonochemical reactor, a damped standing wave is formed as shown in Fig. 1.13 [1]. Without absorption of ultrasound, a pure standing wave is formed because the intensity of the reflected wave from the liquid surface is equivalent to that of the incident wave at any distance from the transducer. Thus the minimum acoustic-pressure amplitude is completely zero at each pressure node where the incident and reflected waves are exactly cancelled each other. In actual experiments, however, there is absorption of ultrasound especially due to cavitation bubbles. As a result, there appears a traveling wave component because the intensity of the incident wave is higher than that of the reflected wave. Thus, the local minimum value of acoustic pressure amplitude is non-zero as seen in Fig. 1.13. It should be noted that the acoustic-pressure amplitude at the liquid surface (gas-liquid interface) is always zero. In Fig. 1.13, there is the liquid surface... 

Rae J, Ashokkumar M, Eulaerts O, von Sonntag C, Reisse J, Grieser F (2005) Estimation of ultrasound induced cavitation bubble temperatures in aqueous solutions. Ultrason Sonochem 12 325-329... 

Acoustic cavitation is as a result of the passage of ultrasound through the medium, while hydrodynamic cavitation occurs as the result of the velocity variation in the flow due to the changing geometry of the path of fluid flow. In spite of this difference in the mechanisms of generation of two types of cavitation, bubble behavior shows similar trends with the variation of parameters in both these types of cavitation. The two main aspects of bubble behavior in cavitation phenomena are ... 

In the literature we can now find several papers which establish a widely accepted scenario of the benefits and effects of an ultrasound field in an electrochemical process [13-15]. Most of this work has been focused on low frequency and high power ultrasound fields. Its propagation in a fluid such as water is quite complex, where the acoustic streaming and especially the cavitation are the two most important phenomena. In addition, other effects derived from the cavitation such as microjetting and shock waves have been related with other benefits reported for this coupling. For example, shock waves induced in the liquid cause not only an enhanced convective movement of material but also a possible surface damage. Micro jets of liquid, with speeds of up to 100 ms-1, result from the asymmetric collapse of cavitation bubbles at the solid surface [16] and contribute to the enhancement of the mass transport of material to the solid surface of the electrode. Therefore, depassivation [17], reaction mechanism modification [18], surface activation [19], adsorption phenomena decrease [20] and the mass transport enhancement [21] are effects derived from the presence of an ultrasound field on electrode processes. We have only listed the main phenomena referring to the reader to the specific reviews [22, 23] and reference therein. 

Based on these results, the reduction of Au(III) requires the formation of hot cavitation bubbles which cause pyrolysis of water and 1-propanol molecules. In addition, it is suggested that the number of hot cavitation bubbles and/or the bubble temperatures increase with increasing ultrasound intensity in the irradiation system. 

When the ultrasound frequency used changes, the following factors would change (1) the temperature and pressure inside the collapsing cavitation bubbles, (2) the number and distribution of bubbles, (3) the size and lifetime of bubbles, (4) the... 

On the other hand stable cavitation (bubbles that oscillate in a regular fashion for many acoustic cycles) induce microstreaming in the surrounding liquid which can also induce stress in any microbiological species present [5]. This type of cavitation may well be important in a range of applications of ultrasound to biotechnology [6]. An important consequence of the fluid micro-convection induced by bubble collapse is a sharp increase in the mass transfer at liquid-solid interfaces. In microbiology there are two zones where this ultrasonic enhancement of mass transfer will be important. The first is at the membrane and/or cellular wall and the second is in the cytosol i. e. the liquid present inside the cell. 

Henglein [71] has used pulsed ultrasound and has shown that the degree of polymerisation decreases when the duration of pulsed ultrasound is decreased. The growth and collapse of cavitation bubbles require a finite time - they are not instantaneous. Henglein has also shown that the rate (and degree of polymerisation) depends upon the nature of the gas used to saturate the system. For the polymerisation ofmethacrylic acid in aqueous solution, a 15 min irradiation yielded 10.7% conversion in the presence of Nj, 1.8% conversion in the presence of O2 (low presumably due to inhibition) and no polymerisation in a degassed solution). 

According to the hot-spot theory (Neppiras Noltingk 1950), the homogeneous ultrasound reaction takes place in the collapsing cavitation bubble and in the superheated (ca. 2,000 K) liquid shell around it. Species with sufficient vapor pressure diffuse into the cavity, where they undergo the effect of adiabatic collapse. 

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