Slow-fast ambiguity

A kinetic scheme that is fully consistent with experimental observations may yet be ambiguous in the sense that it may not be unique. An example was discussed earlier (Section 3.1, Consecutive Reactions), when it was shown that ki and 2 in Scheme IX may be interchanged without altering some of the rate equations this is the slow-fast ambiguity. Additional examples of kinetically indistinguishable kinetic schemes have been discussed.The following subsection treats one aspect of this problem. 

The potentiostatic method is less ambiguous than the galvanostatic one. Its application, however, requires more sophisticated instrumentation. The rise time of the potentiostat should be fast enough to ensure rapid step change of the potential. Errors may arise from slow rise times as well as from current integration. With porous electrodes, all sites may not be under the same potential diffusion of reactant into or out of the pores may be slow compared with the potential change, which can lead to incorrect estimates of surface coverage and utilization. 

When the discussion turns to removal of some component from a fluid stream by a high surface area porous solid, such as silica gel, which is found in many consumer products (often in a small packet and sometimes in the product itself), then the term "adsorption" becomes more global and hence ambiguous. The reason for this ironically is that mass transfer may be convoluted with adsorption. In other words the component to be adsorbed must move from the bulk gas phase to the near vicinity of the adsorbent particle, and this is termed external mass transfer. From the near external surface region, the component must now be transported through the pore space of the particles. This is called internal mass transfer because it is within the particle. Finally, from the fluid phase within the pores, the component must be adsorbed by the surface in order to be removed from the gas. Any of these processes, external, internal, or adsorption, can, in principle, be the slowest step and therefore the process that controls the observed rate. Most often it is not the adsorption that is slow in fact, this step usually comes to equilibrium quickly (after all just think of how fast frost forms on a beer mug taken from the freezer on a humid summer afternoon). More typically it is the internal mass transport process that is rate limiting. This, however, is lumped with the true adsorption process and the overall rate is called "adsorption." We will avoid this problem and focus on adsorption alone as if it were the rate-controlling process so that we may understand this fundamentally. 

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