Authors: L VilcaQuispe J J AlvaradoGil P Quintana J OrdonezMiranda
Publish Date: 2010/06/20
Volume: 31, Issue: 4-5, Pages: 987-997
Abstract
In this work the kinetics of diffusion of methylene blue in agar aqueous solution is studied using a photoacoustic technique Two agar phantoms solutions in water with a relation of mass/volume of 001 and 005 were analyzed The study was performed using a modified Rosencwaig photoacoustic cell that is enclosed by transparent windows on both sides The sample is deposited directly on top of the upper window A red light beam at a fixed modulation frequency is sent through the lower window illuminating the sample and inducing the photoacoustic effect inside the closed chamber of the cell At the beginning of the experiment a droplet of 100μL of agar solution is deposited afterwards the signal stabilizes and 10μL of methylene blue aqueous solution 00125 g · mL−1 is added to the surface of the agar During the first seconds of the experiment the photoacoustic signal amplitude increases followed by a gradual and long decay Results for modulation frequencies in the range from 10Hz to 80Hz for both agar concentrations are presented A simple theoretical approach is presented to analyze the experimental data It is demonstrated that the kinetics of the process can be parameterized as a function of the changes of an effective optical absorption coefficient From these results the characteristic time in which the dye diffusion process stabilizes is obtained It is found that this time is larger for samples with a higher agar concentration These differences provide important results for biomedical sciences in which agar gels are used as phantoms resembling some of the properties of living organs and tissues
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