Kinetics in multiphase systems

Recovery of metals such as copper, the operation of batteries (cells) in portable electronic equipment, the reprocessing of fission products in the nuclear power industry and a very wide range of gas-phase processes catalysed by condensed phase materials are applied chemical processes, other than PTC, in which chemical reactions are coupled to mass transport within phases, or across phase boundaries. Their mechanistic investigation requires special techniques, instrumentation and skills covered here in Chapter 5, but not usually encountered in undergraduate chemistry degrees. Electrochemistry generally involves reactions at phase boundaries, so there are connections here between Chapter 5 (Reaction kinetics in multiphase systems) and Chapter 6 (Electrochemical methods of investigating reaction mechanisms). 

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Heat and mass transfer effects can be more significant than intrinsic kinetics in multiphase systems. 

Ultrasound can thus be used to enhance kinetics, flow, and mass and heat transfer. The overall results are that organic synthetic reactions show increased rate (sometimes even from hours to minutes, up to 25 times faster), and/or increased yield (tens of percentages, sometimes even starting from 0% yield in nonsonicated conditions). In multiphase systems, gas-liquid and solid-liquid mass transfer has been observed to increase by 5- and 20-fold, respectively [35]. Membrane fluxes have been enhanced by up to a factor of 8 [56]. Despite these results, use of acoustics, and ultrasound in particular, in chemical industry is mainly limited to the fields of cleaning and decontamination [55]. One of the main barriers to industrial application of sonochemical processes is control and scale-up of ultrasound concepts into operable processes. Therefore, a better understanding is required of the relation between a cavitation coUapse and chemical reactivity, as weU as a better understanding and reproducibility of the influence of various design and operational parameters on the cavitation process. Also, rehable mathematical models and scale-up procedures need to be developed [35, 54, 55]. 

The production of species i (number of moles per unit volume and time) is the velocity of reaction,. In the same sense, one understands the molar flux, jh of particles / per unit cross section and unit time. In a linear theory, the rate and the deviation from equilibrium are proportional to each other. The factors of proportionality are called reaction rate constants and transport coefficients respectively. They are state properties and thus depend only on the (local) thermodynamic state variables and not on their derivatives. They can be rationalized by crystal dynamics and atomic kinetics with the help of statistical theories. Irreversible thermodynamics is the theory of the rates of chemical processes in both spatially homogeneous systems (homogeneous reactions) and inhomogeneous systems (transport processes). If transport processes occur in multiphase systems, one is dealing with heterogeneous reactions. Heterogeneous systems stop reacting once one or more of the reactants are consumed and the systems became nonvariant. 

However, a note of caution should be added. In many multiphase reaction systems, rates of mass transfer between different phases can be just as important or more important than reaction kinetics in determining the reactor volume. Mass transfer rates are generally higher in gas-phase than liquid-phase systems. In such situations, it is not so easy to judge whether gas or liquid phase is preferred. 

The formation of nitrosamines in aprotic solvents has applicability to many practical lipophilic systems including foods (particularly bacon), cigarette smoke, cosmetics, and some drugs. The very rapid kinetics of nitrosation reactions in lipid solution indicates that the lipid phase of emulsions or analogous multiphase systems can act as "catalyst" to facilitate nitrosation reactions that may be far slower in purely aqueous media (41, 53, 54). This is apparently true in some cosmetic emulsion systems and may have important applicability to nitrosation reactions in vivo, particularly in the GI tract. In these multiphase systems, the pH of the aqueous phase may be poor for nitrosation in aqueous media (e.g., neutral or alkaline pH) because of the very small concentration of HONO or that can exist at these pH ranges. 

One way in which the material can be used is illustrated by the practice at the University of Toronto. Chapters 1-8 (sections 8.1-8.4) on chemical kinetics are used for a 40-lecture (3 per week) course in the fall term of the third year of a four-year program the lectures are accompanied by weekly 2-hour tutorial (problem-solving) sessions. Chapters on CRE (11-15,17,18, and 21) together with particle-transport kinetics from section 8.5 are used for a similarly organized course in the spring term. There is more material than can be adequately treated in the two terms. In particular, it is not the practice to deal with all the aspects of nonideal flow and multiphase systems that are described. This approach allows both flexibility in choice of topics from year to year, and material for an elective fourth-year course (in support of our plant design course), drawn primarily from Chapters 9,19,20, and 22-24. 

What makes the fabrication of composite materials so complex is that it involves simultaneous heat, mass, and momentum transfer, along with chemical reactions in a multiphase system with time-dependent material properties and boundary conditions. Composite manufacturing requires knowledge of chemistry, polymer and material science, rheology, kinetics, transport phenomena, mechanics, and control systems. Therefore, at first, composite manufacturing was somewhat of a mystery because very diverse knowledge was required of its practitioners. We now better understand the different fundamental aspects of composite processing so that this book could be written with contributions from many composite practitioners. 

The foregoing chapters mark a long and not yet finished journey through the special field of the chemical kinetics of solids. It differs from the more common textbooks on kinetics not only because of the immense variety of crystalline phases, but even more in view of the ambiguity in the definition of the correct number of independent thermodynamic state variables. This is the source of many difficulties and particularly with solids containing one or more immobile components or multiphase systems composed of coherent or semicoherent crystals. In coping with this inherent complexity in the foregoing chapters, we chose to restrict ourselves mainly to the fundamental aspects rather than to present many uncorrelated details. 

As explained in Chapters 10 and 11, the existence of pressure fluctuation and the promotion of micromixing are the major features of liquid-continuous impinging streams. For processes occurring on the molecular scale in liquid or multiphase systems with a liquid as the continuous phase, these features have important implications. One of their valuable applications is the promotion of process kinetics. 

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