Diffusion coefficient, effective thermodynamic

Many more correlations are available for diffusion coefficients in the liquid phase than for the gas phase. Most, however, are restiicied to binary diffusion at infinite dilution D°s of lo self-diffusivity D -. This reflects the much greater complexity of liquids on a molecular level. For example, gas-phase diffusion exhibits neghgible composition effects and deviations from thermodynamic ideahty. Conversely, liquid-phase diffusion almost always involves volumetiic and thermodynamic effects due to composition variations. For concentrations greater than a few mole percent of A and B, corrections are needed to obtain the true diffusivity. Furthermore, there are many conditions that do not fit any of the correlations presented here. Thus, careful consideration is needed to produce a reasonable estimate. Again, if diffusivity data are available at the conditions of interest, then they are strongly preferred over the predictions of any correlations. 

The theory of seaweed formation does not only apply to solidification processes but in fact to the completely different phenomenon of a wettingdewetting transition. To be precise, this applies to the so-called partial wetting scenario, where a thin liquid film may coexist with a dry surface on the same substrate. These equations are equivalent to the one-sided model of diffusional growth with an effective diffusion coefficient which depends on the viscosity and on the thermodynamical properties of the thin film. 

The Chemkin package deals with problems that can be stated in terms of equation of state, thermodynamic properties, and chemical kinetics, but it does not consider the effects of fluid transport. Once fluid transport is introduced it is usually necessary to model diffusive fluxes of mass, momentum, and energy, which requires knowledge of transport coefficients such as viscosity, thermal conductivity, species diffusion coefficients, and thermal diffusion coefficients. Therefore, in a software package analogous to Chemkin, we provide the capabilities for evaluating these coefficients. ... 

Table 1. Properties of representative metal complexes, including effective labilities, thermodynamic stabilities and mobilities in environmental systems (modified from Buffle [2,78]). Diffusion coefficients are indicative only, and depend upon the exact physicochemical conditions that are examined please consult original references for more precise values. Metal complex labilities and stabilities are discussed in Sections 4 and 7...

The thermodynamic approach does not make explicit the effects of concentration at the membrane. A good deal of the analysis of concentration polarisation given for ultrafiltration also applies to reverse osmosis. The control of the boundary layer is just as important. The main effects of concentration polarisation in this case are, however, a reduced value of solvent permeation rate as a result of an increased osmotic pressure at the membrane surface given in equation 8.37, and a decrease in solute rejection given in equation 8.38. In many applications it is usual to pretreat feeds in order to remove colloidal material before reverse osmosis. The components which must then be retained by reverse osmosis have higher diffusion coefficients than those encountered in ultrafiltration. Hence, the polarisation modulus given in equation 8.14 is lower, and the concentration of solutes at the membrane seldom results in the formation of a gel. For the case of turbulent flow the Dittus-Boelter correlation may be used, as was the case for ultrafiltration giving a polarisation modulus of ... 

It is apparent from early observations [93] that there are at least two different effects exerted by temperature on chromatographic separations. One effect is the influence on the viscosity and on the diffusion coefficient of the solute raising the temperature reduces the viscosity of the mobile phase and also increases the diffusion coefficient of the solute in both the mobile and the stationary phase. This is largely a kinetic effect, which improves the mobile phase mass transfer, and thus the chromatographic efficiency (N). The other completely different temperature effect is the influence on the selectivity factor (a), which usually decreases, as the temperature is increased (thermodynamic effect). This occurs because the partition coefficients and therefore, the Gibbs free energy difference (AG°) of the transfer of the analyte between the stationary and the mobile phase vary with temperature. 

The rapid transport of the linear, flexible polymer was found to be markedly dependent on the concentration of the second polymer. While no systematic studies were performed on these ternary systems, it was argued that the rapid rates of transport could be understood in terms of the dominance of strong thermodynamic interactions between polymer components overcoming the effect of frictional interactions this would give rise to increasing apparent diffusion coefficients with concentration 28-45i. This is analogous to the resulting interplay of these parameters associated with binary diffusion of polymers. 

The proper choice of a solvent for a particular application depends on several factors, among which its physical properties are of prime importance. The solvent should first of all be liquid under the temperature and pressure conditions at which it is employed. Its thermodynamic properties, such as the density and vapour pressure, and their temperature and pressure coefficients, as well as the heat capacity and surface tension, and transport properties, such as viscosity, diffusion coefficient, and thermal conductivity also need to be considered. Electrical, optical and magnetic properties, such as the dipole moment, dielectric constant, refractive index, magnetic susceptibility, and electrical conductance are relevant too. Furthermore, molecular characteristics, such as the size, surface area and volume, as well as orientational relaxation times have appreciable bearing on the applicability of a solvent or on the interpretation of solvent effects. These properties are discussed and presented in this Chapter. 

The sorption coefficient (K) in Equation (2.84) is the term linking the concentration of a component in the fluid phase with its concentration in the membrane polymer phase. Because sorption is an equilibrium term, conventional thermodynamics can be used to calculate solubilities of gases in polymers to within a factor of two or three. However, diffusion coefficients (D) are kinetic terms that reflect the effect of the surrounding environment on the molecular motion of permeating components. Calculation of diffusion coefficients in liquids and gases is possible, but calculation of diffusion coefficients in polymers is much more difficult. In the long term, the best hope for accurate predictions of diffusion in polymers is the molecular dynamics calculations described in an earlier section. However, this technique is still under development and is currently limited to calculations of the diffusion of small gas molecules in amorphous polymers the... 

In terms of Eq. (1), the driving force is ApA and the resistance, f2 = L/Pa. Although the effective skin thickness L is often not known, the so-called permeance, PA/L can be determined by simply measuring the pressure normalized flux, viz., Pa/L = [flux of A]/A/j>a, so this resistance is known. Since the permeability normalizes the effect of the thickness of the membrane, it is a fundamental property of the polymeric material. Fundamental comparisons of material properties should be done on the basis of permeability, rather than permeance. Since permeation involves a coupling of sorption and diffusion steps, the permeability is a product of a thermodynamic factor, SA, called the solubility coefficient, and a kinetic parameter, DA, called the diffusion coefficient. 

According to the thermodynamics of irreversible processes, the mutual diffusion coefficient D may be a function of penetrant concentration ct, position x, and time t. In the present chapter we shall discuss sorption behavior of systems in which D varies with cx only, and shall use the notation D (cx) to indicate this condition. It is assumed that the sample film is so thin that diffusion takes place effectively in the direction of its thickness. At the beginning of an absorption or a desorption experiment the film is conditioned so that Cj is uniform everywhere in it. This initial concentration is denoted by cf. Then we have... 

It has long been a mystery why diffusion coefficients of polymer-diluent systems, especially when the diluent is a good solvent for a given polymer, exhibit so pronounced a concentration dependence that it looks extraordinary. Several proposals have been made for the interpretation of this dependence. Thus Park (1950) attempted to explain it in terms of the thermodynamic non-ideality of polymer-diluent mixtures, but it was found that such an effect was too small to account for the actual data. Fujita (1953) suggested immobilization of penetrant molecules in the polymer network, which, however, was not accepted by subsequent workers. Recently, Barrer and Fergusson (1958) reported that their diffusion coefficient data for benzene in rubber could be analyzed in terms of the zone theory of diffusion due to Barrer (1957). Examination shows, however, that their conclusion is never definitive, since it resorted to a less plausible choice of the value for a certain basic parameter. 

The primary requirement for an economic separation process is an adsorbent with high selectivity and capacity. The selectivity may depend upon differences in either kinetics or thermodynamic equilibrium of adsorption. Differences in diffusion rates between molecules, due to steric effects, can be large enough to provide transient selectivity. The separation factor is the ratio between the diffusion coefficients of the molecules. 

For a ternary mixture, equations above can describe thermodynamically and mathematically coupled mass and energy conservation equations without chemical reaction, and electrical, magnetic and viscous effects. To solve these equations, we need the data on heats of transport, thermal diffusion coefficient, diffusion coefficients and thermal conductivity, and the accuracy of solutions depend on the accuracy of the data. 

The chemical diffusion coefficient includes, as we know from the formal treatment in Section VI..3iv., both an effective ambipolar conductivity and an effective ambipolar concentration. The latter parameter is determined by the thermodynamic factor which is large for the components but close to unity for the defects. 

These thermodynamic approaches to hydrophobic effects are complemented by spectroscopic studies. Tanabe (1993) has studied the Raman spectra manifested during the rotational diffusion of cyclohexane in water. The values of the diffusion coefficients are approximately half those expected from data for other solvents of the same viscosity, and the interpretations made are in terms of hindered rotation arising from the icebergs presumably formed (c/. Frank and Evans) around the cyclohexane. 

In fact, X is a correction parameter for the Pick diffusion coefficient. This correction has a similar effect on the apparent diffusivity as the correction given in Eq. (14). When X is less then 1, the diffusivity increases with occupancy. This correction can also be applied to the Maxwell-Stefan diffusivity, which results in an even larger effect of concentration on the flux. The concentration dependence of the flux in the Maxwell-Stefan equations depends largely on the adsorption isotherm chosen, since this isotherm determines the thermodynamic factor. For Langmuir adsorption the concentration dependence of the flux increases in the following order using different models ... 

Separation from mixtures is achieved because the membrane transports one component more readily than the others, even if the driving forces are equal. The effectiveness of pervaporation is measured by two parameters, namely flux, which determines the rate of permeation and selectivity, which measures the separation efficiency of the membrane (controlled by the intrinsic properties of the polymer used to construct it). The coupling of fluxes affecting the permeability of a mixture component can be divided into two parts, namely a thermodynamic part expressed as solubility, and a kinetic part expressed as diffusivity. In the thermodynamic part, the concentration change of one component in the membrane due to the presence of another is caused by mutual interactions between the permeates in the membrane in addition to interactions between the individual components and the membrane material. On the other hand, kinetic coupling arises from the dependence of the concentration on the diffusion coefficients of the permeates in the polymers [155]. 

In thermodynamically nonideal solutions, the effect of concentration on diffusion coefficient ( >A)conc can be estimated in terms of the activity coefficient of the solute 7a> the binary diffusivities andDa in very dilute solutions, and the mole fractions Za and ATb of A and B (V8) ... 

The Othmer plot works well because the errors inherent in the assumptions made in deriving Eq. (4.20) cancel out to a considerable extent. At very high pressures the Othmer plot is not too effective. Incidentally, this type of plot has been applied to estimate a wide variety of thermodynamic and transport relations, such as equilibrium constants, diffusion coefficients, solubility relations, ionization and dissociation constants, and so on, with considerable success. 

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