Measurements of the Collisionally Quenched Lifetime of CO in Hydrocarbon Flames

Abstract

Time-resolved laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) from CO molecules in hydrocarbon flames was studied. Collisional quenching constants were evaluated on the basis of the exponential decays. Effective lifetime in a methane/oxygen flame was observed to vary between 250 and 400 ps depending on the position within the flame, and from 400 to 600 ps in the non-sooty parts of an ethylene/air flame. Fluorescence, constituting simultaneous spatially and temporally resolved decays, was also registered from various sections along a laser beam that probed different parts of the flame. Spectral recordings revealed not only the expected CO peaks but also, in the ethylene flame, laser-induced emission from C₂ Swan bands and from polyaromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission that affected the fluorescence time decay in the sooty part of the flame.