Molecular intracrystalline lifetime

If the calculated value of is equal to the measured intracrystalline lifetime, Tinira, the rate of molecular exchange between different crystals is controlled by the intracrystalline self-diffusion as the rate-limiting process. Any increase of Timn, in comparison with Tf,j L indicates the existence of transport resistances different from intracrystalline mass transport. Under the conditions of TD NMR one has A r. > Antra, thus these resistances can only be brought about by sur ce barriers. The ratio Timra/Tfn L represents, therefore, a direct measure of the influence of surface barriers on molecular transport. 

Three quantities that have a key function for the understanding of mass transfer in granules are illustrated in Pig. 2 (i) the coefficients of intracrystalline self-diffusion, Dmm, and of (ii) long-range self-diffusion, Du., as well as (iii) the molecular mean lifetime, Tma- The coefficient of long-range self-difffusion is approximated by... 

In general, for zeolitic self-diffusion at sufficiently high temperatures, the mean molecular displacements outside the crystal are much larger than those inside the zeolites that is to say, long-range self-diffusion, Di.r., is much faster than intracrystalline self-diffusion, Dintra- For observation times comparable with the mean lifetimes of the adsorbed molecules in the individual crystallites, the spin-echo attenuation can be approximated by the superposition of two exponentials of the type of Eq. (6)... 

If molecular exchange is controlled by intracrystalline diffusion, then the intracrystalline mean lifetime is given by Eq. (2), where it is assumed that the crystallites may be approximated by spheres (Sec. II.A.). Clearly, coincides with the directly measured Tj ,ra if desorption is controlled by intracrystalline diffusion. If, however, the rate of molecular exchange is additionally reduced by transport resistances at the crystallite boundary (so-called surface barriers), Tji,ra may be much greater than ... 

From Eq. (2), the measured diffusivities may be used to determine the mean lifetime of the reactant and product molecules within the individual crystallites under the assumption that the molecular exchange is exclusively controlled by intracrystalline diffusion. These values, being of the order of 30 ms, are found to agree with the real intracrystalline mean lifetime directly determined by NMR tracer desorption studies (208], so that any influence of crystallite surface barriers may be excluded. From an analysis of the time dependence of the intracrystalline concentration of the reactant and product molecules, the intrinsic reaction time constant is found to be on the order of 10 s. This value is much larger than the intracrystalline mean lifetimes determined by PFG NMR, and thus any limiting influence of mass transfer for the considered reaction may be excluded. In agreement with this conclusion, the size of the applied crystallites was found to have no influence on the conversion rates in measurements with a flow reactor (208]. 

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