Some Recent Spectroscopic Investigations of Low-Pressure Oxyacetylene Flames

In this chapter we present a description of recent spectroscopic investigations of low-pressure flames. In particular we shall be concerned with the reaction zone of low-pressure oxyacetylene flames. As the effort devoted to such studies is relatively small this description is necessarily a short one. Very little, if any, attention has been paid to low-pressure flames from the practical point of view. The greater part of spectroscopic research deals with the visible and ultraviolet spectra of diatomic molecules like CO, CH, CN, C2, NH and OH. An excellent review of the older literature can of course be found in Gaydon’s well-known book [1]. The studies of interest which specifically deal with metal atoms in low-pressure flames are very limited in number. We may mention here the work of Gaydon and Wolfhard [2] on the excitation of Fe, Pb and Tl in the reaction zone of various flames, and that of Broida and Shuler [3] for Fe. Quite recently an interesting experiment with Zri was reported by Hollander and Broida [4] (see Section 7.5). In addition to these there are the investigations of a somewhat preliminary character carried out by the author, which will be treated at greater length in Sections 7.3 and 7.4.