Ultrasound generators: direct

Some information is available on the mechanisms responsible for the direct or indirect effects exerted by ultrasound on antigen retrieval. Considerable heat is generated during ultrasound exposure, but the heat dissipates very quickly. Very rapid heat loss has misled some workers to state that ultrasound generates a mild increment in temperature (Portiansky and Gimeno, 1996). 

For the sonochemical mineralization of reactive dye Cl Reactive Black 5 with 20, 279 and 817 kHz irradiation, the discoloration and radical formation both are directly dependent upon ultrasonic frequency, acoustic power and irradiation time and indirectly on the number of free radicals thus generated, as their suppression decreased the discoloration rate due to radical scavenging effect. Although ultrasound alone is capable of decolorizing Reactive Black 5 but inefficient in mineralization as only 50% degradation was observed after 6 h of ultrasonic irradiation [121]. The sonochemical... 

When a liquid-solid interface is subjected to ultrasound, transient cavitation still occurs, but with major changes in the nature of the bubble collapse. No longer do cavities implode spherically. Instead, a markedly asymmetric collapse occurs, which generates a jet of liquid directed at the surface, as seen in high speed micro-cinematography by Ellis (9) and Lauterborn (K)) (shown... 

The possible mechanisms which one might invoke for the activation of these transition metal slurries include (1) creation of extremely reactive dispersions, (2) improved mass transport between solution and surface, (3) generation of surface hot-spots due to cavitational micro-jets, and (4) direct trapping with CO of reactive metallic species formed during the reduction of the metal halide. The first three mechanisms can be eliminated, since complete reduction of transition metal halides by Na with ultrasonic irradiation under Ar, followed by exposure to CO in the absence or presence of ultrasound, yielded no metal carbonyl. In the case of the reduction of WClfc, sonication under CO showed the initial formation of tungsten carbonyl halides, followed by conversion of W(C0) , and finally its further reduction to W2(CO)io Thus, the reduction process appears to be sequential reactive species formed upon partial reduction are trapped by CO. 

A semi-industrial pilot plant has been developed in which air-borne ultrasound has been applied to the reduction of particle emissions in coal combustion fumes [62]. The installation basically consists of an acoustic agglomeration chamber with a rectangular cross-section, driven by four high-power and highly directional acoustic transducers operating at 10 and/or 20 kHz, and an electrostatic precipitator (ESP). In the experiments, a fluidised bed coal combustor was used as fume generator with fume flow rates up to about 2000 m /h, gas temperatures of about 150 °C. and mass concentrations in the range 1-5 gm. The acoustic filter reduced fine particle emissions by about 40 %. 

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