Regular Article

Electromagnetic wave propagation characteristics in unimolecular reactions

College of Electronics and Information Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, P.R. China

^a e-mail: kmhuang@scu.edu.cn

Received: 3 September 2015
Revised: 16 November 2015
Accepted: 18 November 2015
Published online: 13 January 2016

Abstract

Microwave-assisted chemical reactions have attracted interests because of their benefits for enhancement of reaction rates. However, the problems, such as hot spots and thermal runaway, limit the application of microwaves in the chemical industry. To study the characteristics of electromagnetic wave propagation in a chemical reaction is critical to solve the problems. The research on the characteristics of electromagnetic wave propagation in the unimolecular reaction that is a simple model reaction, can be generalized to the research in a chemical reaction. The approximate expressions of the attenuation and dispersion characteristics of electromagnetic wave propagation in the unimolecular reaction are derived by the nonlinear propagation theory. Specially, when the reaction rate is zero, the derived approximate expressions can be reduced to the formulas in low-loss dispersive media. Moreover, a 1D mold is used to validate the feasibility of the approximate expressions. The influences of the reaction rate and initial reactant concentration on the characteristics are obtained.