Development of a Mist Singlet Oxygen Generator

The singlet oxygen generator (SOG) generates singlet oxygen for a chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL), using the gas-liquid reaction between basic hydrogen peroxide (BHP) and Cl2 gas. The Jet-SOG has been widely used, wherein jet BHP from small orifices reacts with Cl2 gas, and the BHP utilization is less than 1% in a single pass through the reaction zone. To improve BHP utilization, the reaction surface with Cl2 gas should be increased, and the droplet diameter of BHP should be decreased. In this study, two types of mist generators were tested for the SOG, with which 65-µm- and 15-µm-diameter droplets were generated. In the 65 µm mist generator, BHP utilization was 22.5% at the Cl2 flow rate of 8.3 mmol/s, and in the 15 µm mist generator, BHP utilization was 41.5% at the Cl2 flow rate of 9.0 mmol/s, that is, BHP utilization of the new SOG, Mist-SOG, markedly exceeded that of the conventional Jet-SOG.