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Chemistry: Acoustic Cavitation

1) Sonochemistry involves using ultrasound to induce acoustic cavitation in liquids, where high-frequency sound waves cause bubbles to form, grow, and violently collapse. 2) The collapse of these bubbles generates extremely high temperatures and pressures that can excite molecules and accelerate chemical reactions without directly interacting with the molecules. 3) Common applications of sonochemistry include enhancing chemical reactivity, breaking up solids to increase surface area for reactions, and destroying water pollutants.

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Rohit Chauhan
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48 views2 pages

Chemistry: Acoustic Cavitation

1) Sonochemistry involves using ultrasound to induce acoustic cavitation in liquids, where high-frequency sound waves cause bubbles to form, grow, and violently collapse. 2) The collapse of these bubbles generates extremely high temperatures and pressures that can excite molecules and accelerate chemical reactions without directly interacting with the molecules. 3) Common applications of sonochemistry include enhancing chemical reactivity, breaking up solids to increase surface area for reactions, and destroying water pollutants.

Uploaded by

Rohit Chauhan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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In 

chemistry, the study of sono-chemistry is concerned with understanding the effect of


ultrasound in forming acoustic cavitation in liquids, resulting in the initiation or enhancement of the
chemical activity in the solution. Therefore, the chemical effects of ultrasound do not come from a
direct interaction of the ultrasonic sound wave with the molecules in the solution. The simplest
explanation for this is that sound waves propagating through a liquid at ultrasonic frequencies do so
with a wavelength that is significantly longer than that of the bond length between atoms in the
molecule. Therefore, the sound wave cannot affect that vibrational energy of the bond, and can
therefore not directly increase the internal energy of a molecule.[1][2] Instead, sonochemistry arises
from acoustic cavitation: the formation, growth, and implosive collapse of bubbles in a liquid.
[3]
 The collapse of these bubbles is an almost adiabatic process, thereby resulting in the massive
build-up of energy inside the bubble, resulting in extremely high temperatures and pressures in a
microscopic region of the sonicated liquid. The high temperatures and pressures result in the
chemical excitation of any matter that was inside of, or in the immediate surroundings of the bubble
as it rapidly imploded. A broad variety of outcomes can result from acoustic cavitation, including
sonoluminescence, increased chemical activity in the solution due to the formation of primary and
secondary radical reactions, and increase chemical activity through the formation of new, relatively
stable chemical species that can diffuse further into the solution to create chemical effects (for
example, the formation of hydrogen peroxide from the combination of two hydroxyl radicals
formed following the dissociation of water vapor inside the collapsing bubbles what water is
exposed to ultrasound.
The influence of sonic waves traveling through liquids was first reported by Robert Williams
Wood (1868–1955) and Alfred Lee Loomis (1887–1975) in 1927. The experiment was about the
frequency of the energy that it took for sonic waves to "penetrate" the barrier of water. He came to
the conclusion that sound does travel faster in water, but because of the water's density compared to
our earth's atmosphere it was incredibly hard to get the sonic waves into the water. After lots of
research they decided that the best way to disperse sound into the water was to make loud noises
into the water by creating bubbles that were made at the same time as the sound. One of the easier
ways that they put sound into the water was they simply yelled. But another road block they ran
into was the ratio of the amount of time it took for the lower frequency waves to penetrate the
bubbles walls and access the water around the bubble, and then time from that point to the point on
the other end of the body of water. But despite the revolutionary ideas of this article it was left
mostly unnoticed.[4] Sonochemistry experienced a renaissance in the 1980s with the advent of
inexpensive and reliable generators of high-intensity ultrasound.[3]
Upon irradiation with high intensity sound or ultrasound, acoustic cavitation usually occurs.
Cavitation – the formation, growth, and implosive collapse of bubbles irradiated with sound — is
the impetus for sonochemistry and sonoluminescence.[5] Bubble collapse in liquids produces
enormous amounts of energy from the conversion of kinetic energy of the liquid motion into
heating the contents of the bubble. The compression of the bubbles during cavitation is more rapid
than thermal transport, which generates a short-lived localized hot-spot. Experimental results have
shown that these bubbles have temperatures around 5000 K, pressures of roughly 1000 atm, and
heating and cooling rates above 1010 K/s.[6][7] These cavitations can create extreme physical and
chemical conditions in otherwise cold liquids.
With liquids containing solids, similar phenomena may occur with exposure to ultrasound.
Once cavitation occurs near an extended solid surface, cavity collapse is nonspherical and drives
high-speed jets of liquid to the surface.[5] These jets and associated shock waves can damage the
now highly heated surface. Liquid-powder suspensions produce high velocity interparticle
collisions. These collisions can change the surface morphology, composition, and reactivity.[8]
Three classes of sonochemical reactions exist: homogeneous sonochemistry of liquids,
heterogeneous sonochemistry of liquid-liquid or solid–liquid systems, and, overlapping with the
aforementioned, sonocatalysis. Sonoluminescence is typically regarded as a special case of
homogeneous sonochemistry. The chemical enhancement of reactions by ultrasound has been
explored and has beneficial applications in mixed phase synthesis, materials chemistry, and
biomedical uses. Because cavitation can only occur in liquids, chemical reactions are not seen in
the ultrasonic irradiation of solids or solid–gas systems.
For example, in chemical kinetics, it has been observed that ultrasound can greatly enhance
chemical reactivity in a number of systems by as much as a million-fold effectively acting as a
catalyst by exciting the atomic and molecular modes of the system (such as the vibrational,
rotational, and translational modes). In addition, in reactions that use solids, ultrasound breaks up
the solid pieces from the energy released from the bubbles created by cavitation collapsing through
them. This gives the solid reactant a larger surface area for the reaction to proceed over, increasing
the observed rate of reaction.
While the application of ultrasound often generates mixtures of products, a paper published in
2007 in the journal Nature described the use of ultrasound to selectively affect a
certain cyclobutane ring-opening reaction.[15] Atul Kumar, has reported multicomponent reaction
Hantzsch ester synthesis in Aqueous Micelles using ultrasound.[16]
Some water pollutants, especially chlorinated organic compounds, can be destroyed
sonochemically.[17]
Sonochemistry can be performed by using a bath (usually used for ultrasonic cleaning) or
with a high power probe, called an ultrasonic horn.

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