Diffuse transparent

In practice, the process regime will often be less transparent than suggested by Table 1.4. As an example, a process may neither be diffusion nor reaction-rate limited, rather some intermediate regime may prevail. In addition, solid heat transfer, entrance flow or axial dispersion effects, which were neglected in the present study, may be superposed. In the analysis presented here only the leading-order effects were taken into account. As a result, the dependence of the characteristic quantities listed in Table 1.5 on the channel diameter will be more complex. For a detailed study of such more complex scenarios, computational fluid dynamics, to be discussed in Section 2.3, offers powerful tools and methods. However, the present analysis serves the purpose to differentiate the potential inherent in decreasing the characteristic dimensions of process equipment and to identify some cornerstones to be considered when attempting process intensification via size reduction. 

In solvent-elimination LC-FTIR, basically three types of substrates and corresponding IR modes can be discerned, namely, powder substrates for diffuse reflectance (DRIFT) detection, metallic mirrors for reflection-absorption (R-A) spectrometry, and IR-transparent windows for transmission measurements [500]. The most favourable solvent-elimination LC-FTIR results have been obtained with IR-transparent deposition substrates that allow straightforward transmission measurements. Analyte morphology and/or transformation should always be taken into consideration during the interpretation of spectra obtained by solvent-elimination LC-FTIR. Dependent on the type of substrate and/or size of the deposited spots, often special optics such as a (diffuse) reflectance unit, a beam condenser or an FITR microscope are used to scan the deposited substances (typical diameter of the FITR beam, 20 pm). 

Diffuse Reflectance IR Fourier Transform Spectroscopy (DRIFTS) can be employed with high surface area catalytic samples that are not sufficiently transparent to be studied in transmission. In this technique, the diffusely scattered IR radiation from a sample is collected, refocussed, and analysed. Samples can be measured in the form of loose powders. 

Figure 175 shows two concepts for the transparent PCM wall. Both show a diffuse illumination and a transparency which changes to some degree between the solid and liquid state of the PCM. 

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