Rotating disk mass transfer

Body forces Heat and mass transfer Rotating packed beds Spinning disks... 

Tank Cells. A direct extension of laboratory beaker cells is represented in the use of plate electrodes immersed into a lined, rectangular tank, which may be fitted with a cover for gas collection or vapor control. The tank cell, which is usually undivided, is used in batch or semibatch operations. The tank cell has the attraction of being both simple to design and usually inexpensive. However, it is not the most suitable for large-scale operation or where forced convection is needed. Rotating cylinders or rotating disks have been used to overcome mass-transfer problems in tank cells. An example for electroorganic synthesis is available (46). 

Contrary to RPBRs, in SDRs, intensified heat transfer presents the most important advantage. Liquid reactant(s) are fed on the surface of a fast rotating disk near its center and flow outward. Temperature control takes place via a cooling medium fed under the reaction surface. The rotating surface of the disc enables to generate a highly sheared liquid film. The film fiow over the surface is intrinsically unstable and an array of spiral ripples is formed. This provides an additional improvement in the mass and heat transfer performance of the device. 

Extraction can be performed in stirred tanks if the process proceeds fast and separation of phases is ea.sy, but column extractors are most commonly used. The column can be filled with a particulate material. The liquids flow countercurrently whereby the flow can be uniform or pulsed. Reciprocated and rotary agitators are often used to enhance mass transfer. An example of the latter type is shown in Fig. 7.2-13 (asymmetric rotating disk (ARD) extractor). 

The RHSE has the same limitation as the rotating disk that it cannot be used to study very fast electrochemical reactions. Since the evaluation of kinetic data with a RHSE requires a potential sweep to gradually change the reaction rate from the state of charge-transfer control to the state of mass transport control, the reaction rate constant thus determined can never exceed the rate of mass transfer to the electrode surface. An upper limit can be estimated by using Eq. (44). If one uses a typical Schmidt number of Sc 1000, a diffusivity D 10 5 cm/s, a nominal hemisphere radius a 0.3 cm, and a practically achievable rotational speed of 10000 rpm (Re 104), the mass transfer coefficient in laminar flow may be estimated to be ... 

This chapter provides analytical solutions to mass transfer problems in situations commonly encountered in the pharmaceutical sciences. It deals with diffusion, convection, and generalized mass balance equations that are presented in typical coordinate systems to permit a wide range of problems to be formulated and solved. Typical pharmaceutical problems such as membrane diffusion, drug particle dissolution, and intrinsic dissolution evaluation by rotating disks are used as examples to illustrate the uses of mass transfer equations. 

Mass-transfer rates from limiting-current measurements in well-supported solutions should invariably be correlated with ionic and not with molecular diffusivities. The former can be calculated from limiting-current measurements, for example, at a rotating-disk electrode. 

The diffusivities thus obtained are necessarily effective diffusivities since (1) they reflect a migration contribution that is not always negligible and (2) they contain the effect of variable properties in the diffusion layer that are neglected in the well-known solutions to constant-property equations. It has been shown, however, that the limiting current at a rotating disk in the laminar range is still proportional to the square root of the rotation rate if the variation of physical properties in the diffusion layer is accounted for (D3e, H8). Similar invariant relationships hold for the laminar diffusion layer at a flat plate in forced convection (D4), in which case the mass-transfer rate is proportional to the square root of velocity, and in free convection at a vertical plate (Dl), where it is proportional to the three-fourths power of plate height. 

The effective diffusivities determined from limiting-current measurements appear at first applicable only to the particular flow cell in which they were measured. However, it can be argued plausibly that, for example, rotating-disk effective diffusivities are also applicable to laminar forced-convection mass transfer in general, provided the same bulk electrolyte composition is used (H8). Furthermore, the effective diffusivities characteristic for laminar free convection at vertical or inclined electrodes are presumably not significantly different from the forced-convection diffusivities. 

Experimental results obtained at a rotating-disk electrode by Selman and Tobias (S10) indicate that this order-of-magnitude difference in the time of approach to the limiting current, between linear current increases, on the one hand, and the concentration-step method, on the other, is a general feature of forced-convection mass transfer. In these experiments the limiting current of ferricyanide reduction was generated by current ramps, as well as by potential scans. The apparent limiting current was taken to be the current value at the inflection point in the current-potential curve. 

Of considerable interest is the use of small isolated electrodes, in the form of strips or disks embedded in the wall, to measure local mass-transfer rates or rate fluctuations. Mass-transfer to spot electrodes on a rotating disk is represented by Eqs. (lOg-i) of Table VII. Analytical solutions in this case have to take account of curved streamlines. Despic et al. (Dlld) have proposed twin spot electrodes as a tool for kinetic studies, similar to the ring-disk electrode applications of disk and ring-disk electrodes for kinetic studies are discussed in several monographs (A3b, P4b). In fully developed channel or pipe flow, mass transfer to such electrodes is given by the following equation based on the Leveque model ... 

Recently significant advances have been made in the analytical solution of mass transfer to a sinusoidally modulated rotating disk electrode. The resulting expressions, confirmed by refined experimental techniques, allow deter-... 

In work by Okada et al. (03) on a rotating-disk flow, Eqs. (10a) and (10b) in Table VII, the electrolyte was completely enclosed between the rotating disk and the counterelectrode. Mass transfer was measured at the rotating as well as at the stationary disk, and the distance between disks was varied. At low rotation rates, the flux at the rotating disk was higher than predicted by the Levich equation, Eq. (la) in Table VII. The flux at the stationary disk followed a relation of the Levich type, but with a constant roughly two-thirds that in the rotating-disk equation. 

Rotating disk mass transfer to rectangular spot electrodes oriented along streamlines See Eq. (lb) of this table Sh = ShrinB See Eq. (lb) of this table Re < 5 x 104 f = 0.72 cm 3 ... 

Despite the importance of the ORR and long history of study, very little is known about the reaction mechanism.126,130,131 Mechanistic information has been derived almost exclusively from rotating disk electrode (RDE)131,132 and rotating ring disk electrode (RRDE)133-136,62,128 studies. The rotating electrode minimizes mass transfer effects and allows a kinetic current density to be extracted. In the RRDE setup, the ring surrounding the disk electrode detects species weakly adsorbed to the electrode that are ejected due to electrode rotation. The ORR reaction (eqn 4) is... 

The mass transfer boundary layer thickness, d, on a rotating disk electrode can be estimated by d = 1.6/J V a) where D is the substrate diffusion coefficient, v is the solution viscosity, and CO is the disk rotation speed. 

K. Unsteady-State Mass Transfer to a Rotating Disk... 

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