Highly efficient sonochemical reaction with a switched spiral focal field

This paper describes an efficient method of inducing sonochemical reactions with focussed ultrasound. A sector-vortex transducer (a phased array transducer with multiple sectors and a geometric focus) is used to produce focal ultrasound fields with spiral-shaped wavefronts. Clockwise and counter-clockwise spiral focal fields, with basically the same ultrasound power distribution but having different wavefront angles, are produced by using the same array transducer. The oxidation of the iodide ions induced from the periodic switching between such a pair of spiral focal fields is investigated at an ultrasound frequency of 750 kHz. The oxidation rate at the optimum switching period (3 ms) is about ten times higher than that at switching periods of 1 s. The optimum switching period and the sonochemical reaction rate are unchanged when the viscosity was adjusted to that of human blood.