Shock Tube Catalytic Activity Experiments

Jerry ZhangUniversity 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

Shock Tube Layout

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

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

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

Shock front 1

Contact su

rface

23

4

5

Reflected shockRarefaction fan

Reflected rarefaction

Distance x

Tim

e t

Driver DrivenDiaphragm

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

Platinum

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 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