Super-resolution in situ ultrasonic monitoring of chemical reactions

Abstract

This paper describes experiments to compare the sensitivity and robustness of ultrasound measurements with pH measurements when monitoring chemical reactions under laboratory conditions, the aim being to determine the relative suitability of the two techniques for process monitoring and control. It is shown that ultrasonic time-of-flight measurements, based on the centre of the area of an ultrasonic pulse, provides for super-resolution with respect to the sampling frequency. In comparison to reaction monitoring based on pH measurements, ultrasound was found to be superior in terms of its response time and resolution.