2005 Articles

Oxygen pressure measurement using singlet oxygen emission

Khalil, Gamal E.; Chang, Alvin; Gouterman, Martin; Callis, James B.; Dalton, Larry R.; Turro, Nicholas J.; Jockusch, Steffen

Pressure sensitive paint (PSP) provides a visualization of two-dimensional pressure distributions on airfoil and model automobile surfaces. One type of PSP utilizes platinum tetra(pentafluorophenyl)porphine (PtTFPP) dissolved in a fluoro-polymer film. Since the intense 650 nm triplet emission of PtTFPP is quenched by ground state oxygen, it is possible to measure two-dimensional oxygen concentration from the 650 nm emission intensity using a Stern-Volmer-type relationship. This article reports an alternative luminescence method to measure oxygen concentration based on the porphyrin-sensitized 1270 nm singlet oxygen emission, which can be imaged with an InGaAs near infrared camera. This direct measurement of oxygen emission complements and further validates the oxygen measurement based on PtTFPP phosphorescence quenching. Initial success at obtaining a negative correlation between the 650nm PtTFPP emission and the 1270 nm O_2 emission in solution led us to additional two-dimensional film studies using surfaces coated with PtTFPP, MgTFPP, and H_2TFPP in polymers in a pressure and temperature controlled chamber.