Surface catalyst infra red laser

• US 20020196825A1
• Filed: 08/14/2002
• Published: 12/26/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NeoKismet, LLC
• Original Assignee: NeoKismet, LLC
• Inventors: Gidwani, Jawahar M., Zuppero, Anthony C.
• Granted Patent: US 6,944,202 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 372/39
• CPC Class Codes: B01J 23/34 Manganese
• CPC Class Codes: B01J 23/40 of the platinum group metals
• CPC Class Codes: C01B 3/386 Catalytic partial combustion
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/66 Types of semiconductor device ; Multistep manufacturing processes therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/095 using chemical or thermal pumping
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/0953 Gas dynamic lasers, i.e. with expansion of the laser gas medium to supersonic flow speeds
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/22 Gases
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/223 the active gas being polyatomic, i.e. containing two or more atoms H01S3/227 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H02S 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/50 Photovoltaic [PV] energy
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 20/52 using catalysts, e.g. selective catalysts

Abstract

An energy converter reacts hydrocarbons and air on a catalyst configuration to produce a population inversion. A photovoltaic system may extract the radiating energy, and a laser system may extract a significant fraction of the reaction energy in the form of coherent radiation. The flooding of the catalyst adsorption sites with fuel and the choice of catalyst predisposes the adsorbing oxygen molecules to create mono-atomic oxygen hot-atoms, which deposit the considerable energy of oxygen adsorption directly into a reaction channel of adjacent, adsorbed and simple fuel radicals, thereby producing simple, energetic product molecules, concentrating the energy in one or a few modes, and strongly favoring inverted populations. A solid state method to stimulate precursor chemisorbed specie dissociation accelerates the reaction rates, providing a method to greatly intensify pulsed power output, increase efficiency, and to facilitate nano-scale and micro-scale thermal energy heat rejection processes.

Claims

1. A method for creating hot atoms as a source of energetic free radicals on a catalyst surface comprising:

adsorbing a molecule on a catalyst via a precursor mediated trapping;

flooding a surface of the catalyst with one or more reactant molecules.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the adsorbing includes:

adsorbing an oxygen molecule; and

trapping the oxygen molecule on one of platinum and silver.

3. The method of claim 1, the method further including:

cooling the catalyst to induce condensation and concentration on the catalyst surface.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the flooding includes:

flooding the catalyst surface with fuel to cause a bias of the dissociative chemisorption process toward the creation of hot atom oxygen free radicals, wherein a collision partner of the hot atom is the fuel.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further includes:

selecting a catalyst such that the oxidizer chemisorption, dissociation, and physisorption energy is a fraction of the available chemical bond energy; and

the flooding includes flooding the catalyst surface with oxidizer radicals to cause a bias of the dissociative chemisorption process toward a creation of hot atom fuel free radicals, wherein a collision partner of the hot atom is the fuel specie.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the hot atom-containing molecule is fuel.

7. The method of claim 6, further including:

selecting the catalyst as one or a combination of platinum, palladium, iridium, Rhenium, Rhodium.

8. The method of claim 6, further including:

selecting the reactant specie as one or combination of methanol, ethanol, and a product of hydrocarbon reformers.

9. A method of stimulating oxidizer chemical reactions comprising:

forming a catalyst surface using a catalyst favoring accumulation of a charged chemisorbed precursor on the catalyst surface, the precursor having an activation barrier to dissociative adsorption less than the activation barrier to revert to its own precursor state; and

causing the charged chemisorbed precursor to acquire sufficient energy to surmount the dissociation barrier.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the precursor includes a peroxo-like doubly charged oxygen precursor.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the precursor includes one of singly charged super-oxo and physisorbed state.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the catalyst includes one or combination of platinum, palladium, iridium, Rhenium, and Rhodium.

13. The method of claim 9, further including:

inducing transitions in energy well of the charged precursor with a laser having a predetermined photon energy.

14. The method of claim 9, further including:

emitting optical radiation, including infra red optical radiation, using an electrically driven light source for causing the charged precursor to acquire sufficient energy.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the light source includes a gas discharge producing optical radiation.

16. The method of claim 9, further including:

stimulating a precursor dissociation using an electric field provided by field emission electrodes within nanometer proximity of the catalyst surface.

17. The method of claim 9, further including:

forming a catalyst layer;

forming a substrate including a diode in contact with the catalyst layer,

wherein the thickness of the catalyst layer is such that a distance from an adsorbate on the catalyst surface to the substrate is less than 3 times the energy free path of an electron near the Fermi level; and

applying a pulse of electrical energy to forward bias the diode.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the substrate has a heat conductivity at least 10 times lower than that of the catalyst.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the substrate includes thin oxide layers to control diode junction barrier heights.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the oxide layers have a thickness of 100 nanometers or less.

21. The method of claim 9, further including:

stimulating the charged precursor by one of a pulsed light source, a pulsed laser, and pulsed electric field.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the stimulating is performed for a duration less than 20 nanoseconds.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the operating temperature during the stimulating is less than 300 Kelvin.

24. The method of claim 15, further including:

removing heat from the substrate.

25. The method of claim 15, further including

applying one or combination of fuel and air in a reaction channel to remove heat from the substrate.

26. The method of claim 15, wherein the pulse of electrical energy includes a pulsed forward bias sufficient to emit hot electrons into an electrode surface of the diode.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the pulsed forward bias is greater than 0.1 electron volts (“

eV”

).

28. The method of claim 9, wherein one or more hot electrons having a predetermined energy are used to cause the charged precursor to acquire energy.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the predetermined energy is less than 1 eV.

30. The method of claim 15, wherein an electrode of the diode is constructed using the same material as the catalyst.

31. The method of claim 15, wherein the duration of the pulse is shorter than the duration of reactions occurring on the catalyst surface.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the duration of the pulse is 0.1 picoseconds.

33. An apparatus to generate hot atoms, comprising:

a porous substrate;

a catalyst placed on the substrate for allowing reactions to occur on a surface of the catalyst; and

a laser system surrounding the surface of the catalyst and forming an optical cavity in the region of catalytic surface reaction.

34. The apparatus of claim 33, wherein the catalyst is one of Platinum, Iridium, Rhodium, Ruthenium, Palladium, Tungsten and a transition metal.

35. The apparatus of claim 33, wherein the catalyst includes a monolayer nanocluster on an oxide substrate.

36. The apparatus of claim 35, wherein the monolayer nanocluster includes any one of gold on titania, and a metal on an oxide.

37. The apparatus of claim 33, wherein the catalyst includes catalyst islands of gold on titanium oxides.

38. The apparatus of claim 33, wherein the porous substrate includes one of zeolite and aerogell.

39. The apparatus of claim 33, wherein the porous substrate includes a dielectric reflector.

40. The apparatus of claim 39, wherein one or more nano-islands of catalyst are deposited with equivalent thickness less than a penetration depth of the laser radiation.

41. The apparatus of claim 40, wherein inter-island spacing of the one or more nano-islands of catalyst is at least several atomic dimensions.

42. The apparatus of claim 41, wherein catalyst island dimensions are at least less than a quarter wavelength of the overtone radiation.

43. The apparatus of claim 33, wherein the porous substrate includes a non-conducting substrate favoring fuel adsorption, and the catalyst includes one or more nanometer dimension catalyst islands favoring oxygen adsorption,

wherein a product of a reaction occurring on the catalyst reside on a non-conductor when the product migrates and diffuses.

44. The apparatus of claim 43, wherein the non-conducting substrate includes one of aluminum oxide, silicon oxide, titanium oxide, and ionic salts.

45. The apparatus of claim 33, wherein the substrate is a non-conducting ionic solid.

46. The apparatus of claim 33, wherein the optical cavity further includes a dichroic resonator.

47. The apparatus of claim 33, wherein the apparatus further includes:

a first wall surrounding the catalyst surface forming a first channel between the catalytic surface and the first wall, the region of catalytic surface reaction being exposed to the first channel,

wherein reactants enter the region via the first channel.

48. The apparatus of claim 33, wherein exhausts from the reaction leave the region via the first channel.

49. The apparatus of claim 33, wherein the apparatus further includes:

a second wall surrounding a bottom side of the porous substrate that is opposite the catalytic surface, the second wall and the bottom side forming a second channel between the first wall and the bottom side,

wherein reactants are enabled to enter the region via the second channel and the porous substrate.

50. The apparatus of claim 33, wherein the laser system includes:

a first laser mirror disposed adjacent to one end of the substrate;

a second laser mirror disposed adjacent to an opposite end of the substrate, the first and the second laser mirrors forming an optical cavity in the region of catalytic surface reaction; and

a laser controller surrounding the first laser mirror.