CO2 laser photoacoustic measurements of ethanol absorption coefficients within infrared region of 9.2–10.8 μm

Abstract

Absorption coefficients of the ethanol vapors at atmospheric pressure and room temperature were measured by photoacoustic technique using a cw, line-tunable, frequency-stabilized CO2 laser as radiation source. The spectrum of the employed CO2 laser includes 54 lines with wavelengths in the infrared region of 9.2–10.8μm and power levels up to 4.7W. Measurements revealed a predominant absorption for ethanol within 9.4μm band of the CO2 laser spectrum, where the highest values of the absorption coefficients were recorded: 3.68cm−1atm−1 at 9R(20) line and 3.65cm−1atm−1 at 9R(22) line. The estimated detection range covers six orders of magnitude, from a minimum of 30ppbV to a maximum of 4% concentration of ethanol in nitrogen, which proves the suitability of the photoacoustic technique for accurate measurements of the ethanol concentration in various applications.