Liquid diffusion self-diffusivity

Following the general trend of looldng for a molecular description of the properties of matter, self-diffusion in liquids has become a key quantity for interpretation and modeling of transport in liquids [5]. Self-diffusion coefficients can be combined with other data, such as viscosities, electrical conductivities, densities, etc., in order to evaluate and improve solvodynamic models such as the Stokes-Einstein type [6-9]. From temperature-dependent measurements, activation energies can be calculated by the Arrhenius or the Vogel-Tamman-Fulcher equation (VTF), in order to evaluate models that treat the diffusion process similarly to diffusion in the solid state with jump or hole models [1, 2, 7]. 

Whereas mutual diffusion characterizes a system with a single diffusion coefficient, self-diffusion gives different diffusion coefficients for all the particles in the system. Self-diffusion thereby provides a more detailed description of the single chemical species. This is the molecular point of view [7], which makes the selfdiffusion more significant than that of the mutual diffusion. In contrast, in practice, mutual diffusion, which involves the transport of matter in many physical and chemical processes, is far more important than self-diffusion. Moreover mutual diffusion is cooperative by nature, and its theoretical description is complicated by nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. Not surprisingly, the theoretical basis of mutual diffusion is more complex than that of self-diffusion [8]. In addition, by definition, the measurements of mutual diffusion require mixtures of liquids, while self-diffusion measurements are determinable in pure liquids. 

The mechanism(s) for liquid diffusion are not well established yet. The Arrhenius equation is still the standard description for the self or impurity diffusivities in liquid [90,91], The preexponential factor and activation energy can be either fitted from the experimental data, or based solely on the first principle simulation [92-94] and theoretical estimation [95,96] when no experimental value is available. 

The pulsed field gradient method of self-diffusion measurement was originally developed by Stcjskal and Tanner " for the measurement of diffusion in liquids. The self-diffusivity is measured directly and no prior estimate of jump distance is needed so the results are, in principle, more reliable. The development and application of this technique to the study diffusion in zeolites and zeolitic adsorbents has been achieved largely through the researches of Pfeifer, Karger, and their co-workers at the Karl Marx University in Leipzig,... 

K.R. Harris, B. Ganbold, W.S. Price, Viscous calibration liquids for self-diffusion measurements, J. Chem. Eng. Data 60 (2015) 3506-3517. 

Translational motions of solvent and other small molecules in polymer solutions are quite different from their behaviors in viscous liquids. The self-diffusion coefficient of the solvent has a transition at a polymer volume fraction 0.4. At smaller (j), Ds follows a simple exponential exp(-a) in polymer concentration, but at larger Ds(c) follows a stretched exponential with large exponent. The exponential factor a is independent of polymer molecular weight, while rj depends strongly on M, so Ds and A must be nearly independent of solution rj. Probes somewhat... 

The conclusion of all these thermodynamic studies is the existence of thiazole-solvent and thiazole-thiazole associations. The most probable mode of association is of the n-rr type from the lone pair of the nitrogen of one molecule to the various other atoms of the other. These associations are confirmed by the results of viscosimetnc studies on thiazole and binary mixtures of thiazole and CCU or QHij. In the case of CCU, there is association of two thiazole molecules with one solvent molecule, whereas cyclohexane seems to destroy some thiazole self-associations (aggregates) existing in the pure liquid (312-314). The same conclusions are drawn from the study of the self-diffusion of thiazole (labeled with C) in thiazole-cyclohexane solutions (114). 

In the special case that A and B are similar in molecular weight, polarity, and so on, the self-diffusion coefficients of pure A and B will be approximately equal to the mutual diffusivity, D g. Second, when A and B are the less mobile and more mobile components, respectively, their self-diffusion coefficients can be used as rough lower and upper bounds of the mutual diffusion coefficient. That is, < D g < Dg g. Third, it is a common means for evaluating diffusion for gases at high pressure. Self-diffusion in liquids has been studied by many [Easteal AIChE]. 30, 641 (1984), Ertl and Dullien, AIChE J. 19, 1215 (1973), and Vadovic and Colver, AIChE J. 18, 1264 (1972)]. 

Lee-Thodos presented a generahzed treatment of self-diffusivity for gases (and liquids). These correlations have been tested for more than 500 data points each. The average deviation of the first is 0.51 percent, and that of the second is 17.2 percent. 8 = PyVr, s/cm and where G = (X - X)/(X - 1), X = p,/T h and X = p /T evaluated at the solid melting point. 

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. 

Matthews-Akgerman The free-volume approach of Hildebrand was shown to be valid for binary, dilute liquid paraffin mixtures (as well as self-diffusion), consisting of solutes from Cg to Cig and solvents of Cg and C o- The term they referred to as the diffusion volume was simply correlated with the critical volume, as = 0.308 V. We can infer from Table 5-15 that this is approximately related to the volume at the melting point as = 0.945 V, . Their correlation was vahd for diffusion of linear alkanes at temperatures up to 300°C and pressures up to 3.45 MPa. Matthews et al. and Erkey and Akger-man completea similar studies of diffusion of alkanes, restricted to /1-hexadecane and /i-octane, respectively, as the solvents. 

Table 10.1 Self diffusion coefficients of some liquid metals expressed by an Arrhenius equation...

Short-time Brownian motion was simulated and compared with experiments [108]. The structural evolution and dynamics [109] and the translational and bond-orientational order [110] were simulated with Brownian dynamics (BD) for dense binary colloidal mixtures. The short-time dynamics was investigated through the velocity autocorrelation function [111] and an algebraic decay of velocity fluctuation in a confined liquid was found [112]. Dissipative particle dynamics [113] is an attempt to bridge the gap between atomistic and mesoscopic simulation. Colloidal adsorption was simulated with BD [114]. The hydrodynamic forces, usually friction forces, are found to be able to enhance the self-diffusion of colloidal particles [115]. A novel MC approach to the dynamics of fluids was proposed in Ref. 116. Spinodal decomposition [117] in binary fluids was simulated. BD simulations for hard spherocylinders in the isotropic [118] and in the nematic phase [119] were done. A two-site Yukawa system [120] was studied with... 

The diffusion coefficients of the constituent ions in ionic liquids have most commonly been measured either by electrochemical or by NMR methods. These two methods in fact measure slightly different diffusional properties. The electrochemical methods measure the diffusion coefficient of an ion in the presence of a concentration gradient (Pick diffusion) [59], while the NMR methods measure the diffusion coefficient of an ion in the absence of any concentration gradients (self-diffusion) [60]. Fortunately, under most circumstances these two types of diffusion coefficients are roughly equivalent. 

There are a number of NMR methods available for evaluation of self-diffusion coefficients, all of which use the same basic measurement principle [60]. Namely, they are all based on the application of the spin-echo technique under conditions of either a static or a pulsed magnetic field gradient. Essentially, a spin-echo pulse sequence is applied to a nucleus in the ion of interest while at the same time a constant or pulsed field gradient is applied to the nucleus. The spin echo of this nucleus is then measured and its attenuation due to the diffusion of the nucleus in the field gradient is used to determine its self-diffusion coefficient. The self-diffusion coefficient data for a variety of ionic liquids are given in Table 3.6-6. 

The measurement of transport numbers by the above electrochemical methods entails a significant amount of experimental effort to generate high-quality data. In addition, the methods do not appear applicable to many of the newer non-haloalu-minate ionic liquid systems. An interesting alternative to the above method utilizes the NMR-generated self-diffusion coefficient data discussed above. If both the cation (Dr+) and anion (Dx ) self-diffusion coefficients are measured, then both the cation (tR+) and anion (tx ) transport numbers can be determined by using the following Equations (3.6-6) and (3.6-7) [41, 44] ... 

Transport numbers for several non-haloaluminate ionic liquids generated from ionic liquid self-diffusion coefficients are listed in Table 3.6-7. The interesting, and still open, question is whether the NMR-generated transport numbers provide the same measure of the fraction of current carried by an ion as the electrochemically... 

Looking at translational diffusion in liquid systems, at least two elementary categories have to be taken into consideration self-diffusion and mutual diffusion [1, 2]. 

In a liquid that is in thermodynamic equilibrium and which contains only one chemical species, the particles are in translational motion due to thermal agitation. The term for this motion, which can be characterized as a random walk of the particles, is self-diffusion. It can be quantified by observing the molecular displacements of the single particles. The self-diffusion coefficient is introduced by the Einstein relationship... 

From the molecular point of view, the self-diffusion coefficient is more important than the mutual diffusion coefficient, because the different self-diffusion coefficients give a more detailed description of the single chemical species than the mutual diffusion coefficient, which characterizes the system with only one coefficient. Owing to its cooperative nature, a theoretical description of mutual diffusion is expected to be more complex than one of self-diffusion [5]. Besides that, self-diffusion measurements are determinable in pure ionic liquids, while mutual diffusion measurements require mixtures of liquids. 

Systems that are near to ideality can be described satisfactorily with Equation 4.4-4, but the equation does not work very well in systems that are far from thermodynamic ideality, even if the self-diffusion coefficients and activities are known. Since systems with ionic liquids show strong intermolecular forces, there is a need... 

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