Sonochemistry

Sonochemistry (also sonochemistry ) deals with the effects of ( ultra) sound waves to chemical systems.

Sonochemical effects are not caused by the direct action of the sound waves on the molecules, but by means of acoustic cavitation. Through the action of ultrasound in a liquid form at a bubbles that grow initially and eventually collapse. In the case of this implosion, locally and strictly limited in time, very high energies free. In corresponding experiments, temperatures were measured to 5000 Kelvin and pressures of about 1000 atm. The temperature fluctuations lie about 1010 K / s

The occurring under these extreme physical conditions sonochemical reactions can be divided into the following three classes:

• Homogeneous systems
• Heterogeneous systems with ionic mechanism
• Heterogeneous systems with radical mechanism or mixed reactions