Isotope separation by selective laser-assisted repression of condensation in supersonic free jets
✍ Scribed by Jeff W. Eerkens; Jaewoo Kim
- Publisher
- American Institute of Chemical Engineers
- Year
- 2010
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 243 KB
- Volume
- 56
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0001-1541
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✦ Synopsis
Separation of gaseous molecules in supersonic free jets by laser-assisted selective condensation repression is reviewed. It is shown to have evolved from Becker's prelaser ''Nozzle Separator'' concept of 1956 by simple addition of a laser. Although useful to separate mixtures of dissimilar gases, the technique has mostly been applied to isotope separation. To enrich i SF 6 for example, SF 6 mixed with an inert carrier gas G is expanded through a nozzle into a low-pressure chamber, where it forms a supersonic jet and creates van der Waals hetero-or homodimers SF 6 :G and SF 6 :SF 6 if T \ 150 K. By coaxial or cross irradiation of the free jet with a tunable laser, dimerization of selectively excited j SF 6 is prevented. As radial out-of-the-jet-core diffusion depends on molecular mass, nondimerizable laser-excited j SF 6 monomers enrich the background ''rim'' gases, which are separated by a skimmer from much heavier nonexcited