ABSTRACT
Oxygen is vital to a large variety of industrial and life processes that involve oxidation and combustion. The oxygen analyzers in use today utilize the paramagnetic and electrochemical properties of oxygen or apply catalytic combustion techniques. Oxygen has a strong affinity for a magnetic field. The highly paramagnetic oxygen concentrates the magnetic field, and the resultant rotation or imbalance force on the test body can be detected as a linear function of the oxygen concentration. Variations in the magnetic susceptibility of the background gases in the sample or variations in sample temperature can also contribute to errors. Errors can also occur as a result of a change in sample pressure, because the magnetic susceptibility of oxygen varies as the square of the static pressure. The operation of these oxygen detectors involves the ionization of oxygen in both a sample and a known reference gas stream.
