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US 5,827,420 AGranted
Method and apparatus for the generation of nitric oxide
AssigneeWorld Precision Instruments, Inc.
InventorsShahram Z. Shirazi, Valentin Zhelyaskov
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Abstract
A gas mixture having a preselected concentration of nitric oxide, usable in inhalation therapy for example, is produced by controllably establishing the coulometric reduction of copper ions in a solution of nitric acid accompanied by purging the chamber in which the reduction reaction occurs with an inert gas. A free-standing, portable NO generator for use in the production of such a gas mixture is also disclosed.
Claims10
A method for controllably generating a gas mixture which includes a preselected quantity of nitric oxide comprising the steps of:
- disposing a first electrode in a closed first cell which contains a solution of nitric acid and a source of copper ions;
- disposing a second electrode in a second cell which contains an electrolyte;
- controllably establishing a flow of electric current between said electrodes to electroplate elemental copper from said solution onto said first electrode at a rate commensurate with the magnitude of the current, the elemental copper reacting with the nitric acid to generate nitric oxide gas;
- establishing a flow of carrier gas through said solution in said first cell to provide a gas mixture comprising the generated nitric oxide gas entrained by said carrier gas;
- extracting said gas mixture from said first cell;
- cleaning said extracted gas mixture to remove nitric acid vapor therefrom;
- and
- discharging the cleansed gas mixture.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.