NEW INSTRUMENT DESIGN OF HIGH-PRESSURE OPTICAL-CELL FOR BIOPHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL-RESEARCH

The use of high pressure as a research tool and as a special processin g method in both biophiscochemical studies and industrial applications has shown great prospects. Most of the currently available high press ure optical cells only allow for observation of the optical properties of single samples, thus limiting the data that researchers can obtain . An innovative design which enables users to introduce a second compo nent to the original sample, while both components are under high pres sure, is presented in this article. It will allow researchers to obser ve initial molecular interactions at high pressure via fiberoptics and to record data. The design innovation which distinguishes the high pr essure optical cell from existing models is the introduction of a lase r-activated stopper system which separates two components prior to mix ing. A complete structure and components design for the new cell is de scribed. Computer-aided finite element analysis and optimization were conducted for the design. Some preliminary testing has been done to ve rify the design concept and to check its feasibility. A prototype of t he pressure cell was built to further verify the structure and system setup and to explore new challenges. (C) 1998 American Institute of Ph ysics. [S0034-6748(98)04011-8].