Orange Flame from Active Nitrogen and Oxygen in the Absence of a Metal Catalyst Resulting from Collisional Intersystem Crossing into N₂(B ³Π_g)

Abstract

The discovery of an orange flame is reported that appears also at higher pressures of active nitrogen and oxygen without the presence of a metal catalyst unlike previous research in over 30 years. Enhancement of emissions of the first positive band system of nitrogen was observed from various vibrational levels of the N2(B 3Πg) state. Arguments to identify the species responsible and implications to previous research of this phenomenon of homogeneous excitation and collisional intersystem crossing into N2(B 3Πg) induced by excited O2 are presented. Its probing for lasing is suggested.

Electronically excited molecular nitrogen and molecular oxygen in the high-latitude upper atmosphere

“…A similar coupling between the b 1 + g state and Herzberg states of O 2 was studied in (Bednarek et al, , 1997Shiau et al, 1998;Kalogerakis et al, 2000;Pejakovic et al, 2003). Moreover, Kamaratos (1997Kamaratos ( , 2005aKamaratos ( , b, 2006 has established the enhancement of N 2 (B 3 g , v) production in flowing nitrogen afterglows in the case of the addition of discharged O 2 . He suggested the energy transfer reaction of the metastable singlet oxygen O 2 (a 1 g ) with metastable triplet nitrogen N 2 (A 3 + u ) as a possible mechanism of the enhancement.…”

“…Electronically excited N 2 and O 2 molecules are the subject of intensive theoretical and experimental studies related to radiational processes in the auroral upper atmosphere (Cartwright et al, 1972;Cartwright, 1978;Morrill and Benesch, 1996), the airglow in the region of lower thermosphere -mesosphere (Broadfoot and Kendall, 1968;Shefov et al, 2006), sprites in the middle atmosphere above large thunderstorm systems (Morrill et al, 1998;Bucsela et al, 2003), laser plasmas and gas discharges (Delcroix et al, 1976;Kamaratos, 1997Kamaratos, , 2005aKamaratos, , b, 2006, etc. One of the motivations for the studies was to investigate the role of collisional molecular processes in the electronic excitation and deexcitation of molecules of main atmospheric gases.…”

“…The emissions of first positive group (the transition B 3 g →A 3 + u in molecular nitrogen) and atmospheric bands (the transition b 1 + g →X 3 − g in molecular oxygen) are especially pronounced in the spectra of the aurora (Vallance , the nigthglow (Broatfoot and Kendall, 1968;Shefov et al, 2006), sprites (Morrill et al, 1998), and the laboratory afterglow (Hays and Oskam, 1973;Piper, 1994;Kamaratos, 1997Kamaratos, , 2005aKamaratos, , b, 2006.…”

Electronic kinetics of molecular nitrogen and molecular oxygen in high-latitude lower thermosphere and mesosphere

“…When no admixture of O 2 is added, the N atom density is usually very low. Kamaratos (1997Kamaratos ( , 2006 deduced intensity enhancements of 1PG afterglow emissions of N 2 from experiments when discharged oxygen was added to active nitrogen mixed with oxygen. He believed that the reaction of metastable molecules N 2 (A 3 + u ) and O 2 (a 1 g ) might play a more important role in the formation of N 2 (B 3 g ) in the afterglow stage.…”

Active nitrogen and oxygen: Enhanced emissions and chemical reactions

“…The study of N 2 first positive band system (1pbs) emissions in a nitrogen afterglow has a very long history [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]17]. In recent investigations the appearance of a new bright orange flame due to enhanced N 2 1pbs background afterglow emissions was reported [17-17c] of active nitrogen and active oxygen gas streams without a metal or metallic oxide catalyst and at much higher N 2 and O 2 pressures than those previously used.…”