RESUMO
Absorption coefficients of the ethanol vapors at atmospheric pressure and room temperature were measured by photoacoustic technique using a cw, line-tunable, frequency-stabilized CO2 laser as radiation source. The spectrum of the employed CO2 laser includes 54 lines with wavelengths in the infrared region of 9.2-10.8µm and power levels up to 4.7W. Measurements revealed a predominant absorption for ethanol within 9.4µm band of the CO2 laser spectrum, where the highest values of the absorption coefficients were recorded: 3.68cm(-1)atm(-1) at 9R(20) line and 3.65cm(-1)atm(-1) at 9R(22) line. The estimated detection range covers six orders of magnitude, from a minimum of 30ppbV to a maximum of 4% concentration of ethanol in nitrogen, which proves the suitability of the photoacoustic technique for accurate measurements of the ethanol concentration in various applications.