In chemistry, the study of sonochemistry is concerned with understanding the effect of ultrasound in forming acoustic cavitation in liquids, resulting in the initiation or enhancement of the chemical activity in the solution.
The influence of sonic waves travelling through liquids was first reported by Robert Williams Wood (1868–1955) and Alfred Lee Loomis (1887–1975) in 1927.
[2] Sonochemistry experienced a renaissance in the 1980s with the advent of inexpensive and reliable generators of high-intensity ultrasound, most based around piezoelectric elements.
[3] Sound waves propagating through a liquid at ultrasonic frequencies have wavelengths many times longer than the molecular dimensions or the bond length between atoms in the molecule.
Cavitation – the formation, growth, and implosive collapse of bubbles irradiated with sound — is the impetus for sonochemistry and sonoluminescence.
[13][14][5] The chemical enhancement of reactions by ultrasound has been explored and has beneficial applications in mixed phase synthesis, materials chemistry, and biomedical uses.
This gives the solid reactant a larger surface area of active surfaces for the reaction to proceed over, increasing the observed rate of reaction.,[16][17] While the application of ultrasound often generates mixtures of products, a paper published in 2007 in the journal Nature described the use of ultrasound to selectively affect a certain cyclobutane ring-opening reaction.
A new generation of sonochemistry is harnessing the advantages of functional, ferroelectric materials, to further enhance chemistry in a sonochemical reactor in an emerging process called piezocatalysis.