Shock Tube Catalytic Activity Experiments Jerry Zhang University of Southern California Mechanical Engineering

Overview What is a shock tube? Adding a catalyst Experiments Results Conclusions

What is a shock tube? A tube! That fires shock waves Allows for us to study chemical kinetics

4 Shock Tube Layout Give reference and clean up

From “Modern Compressible Flow”, John D From “Modern Compressible Flow”, John D. Anderson, 3rd Ed, McGraw Hill, 2003

From “Modern Compressible Flow”, John D From “Modern Compressible Flow”, John D. Anderson, 3rd Ed, McGraw Hill, 2003

From “Modern Compressible Flow”, John D From “Modern Compressible Flow”, John D. Anderson, 3rd Ed, McGraw Hill, 2003

Shock front 1 Contact surface 2 3 4 5 Reflected shock Rarefaction fan Reflected rarefaction Distance x Time t Driver Driven Diaphragm Head Tail

Why catalysts? Catalyst: a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction Allows reactions to happen under preferred conditions (lower temperature, lower concentration) Homogeneous vs heterogeneous reactions

Shock Tube Layout with Catalyst 1010 Shock Tube Layout with Catalyst Platinum Give reference and clean up

Experiments Ethane and methane oxidation With and without catalyst Temperatures: 1000 K – 1500 K Minimal change

Reaction Time (without catalyst)

Increased Concentration and Catalysts

Methane Oxidation

Future Work Perform Further Analysis on Platinum Study Other Catalysts Rh Pd

Acknowledgements Acknowledgements, remove heading 1616 Acknowledgements National Science Foundation EEC-NSF Grant # 1062943 Professor Kenneth Brezinsky – UIC Aleksandr Fridlyand – Graduate Student, UIC Robyn Smith – Graduate Student Candidate, CCNY Miroslaw Liszka – Graduate Student Candidate, UIC Professor Marco Castaldi – CCNY Professor Takoudis, Professor Jursich, and everyone in REU Acknowledgements, remove heading