Time-volume space, molecular

In the usual macroscopic analysis of transfer phenomena, fluids are considered as continuous media and macroscopic properties are assumed to vary continuously in time and space. The physical properties (density,. ..) and macroscopic variables (velocity, temperature,...) are averages on a sufficient number of atoms or molecules. If A 10" is a number of molecules high enough to be significant, the side length of a volume containing these N molecules is about 70 nm for a gas in standard conditions and 8 nm for a liquid. These dimensions are smallest than those of a microchannel whose characteristic dimension is between 1 to 300 pm. The transport properties (heat and mass diffusion coefficients, viscosity) depend on the molecular interactions whose effects are of the order of magnitude of the mean free path These last effects can be appreciated with the Knudsen number... 

In chemical kinetics the concept of the order of a reaction forms the basis of a kinematics which constitutes a frame for most of the molecular theories of chemical reactions. The fundamental magnitudes of this kinematics are the concentrations and the specific rate constants. In simple cases only the time enters as an independent variable, whereas in a diffusion process both time and space are involved. Diffusion processes are generally described in terms of diffusion coefficients, volume concentrations and thermodynamic potential or activity factors. Partial volume factors and friction coefficients associated with the components of the diffusing mixture are also essential in the description. A feature of the macro-dynamical theory is that it covers any region of concentration. Especially simple equations are connected with the differential diffusion process (diffusion with small concentration differences), for which the different coefficients or factors mentioned above are practically constant. 

In SEC, mass is not measured so much as the hydrodynamic volume of the polymer molecules, that is, how much space a particular polymer molecule takes up when it is in solution. However, the approximate molecular weight can be calculated from SEC data because the exact relationship between molecular weight and hydrodynamic volume for polystyrene can be found. For this, polystyrene is used as a standard. But the relationship between hydrodynamic volume and molecular weight is not the same for all polymers, so only an approximate measurement can be arrived at. Another drawback is the possibility of interaction between the stationary phase and the analyte. Any interaction leads to a later elution time and thus mimics a smaller analyte size. 

The assumption that the probability of simultaneous occurrence of two particles, of velocities vt and v2 in a differential space volume around r, is equal to the product of the probabilities of their occurrence individually in this volume, is known as the assumption of molecular chaos. In a dense gas, there would be collisions in rapid succession among particles in any small region of the gas the velocity of any one particle would be expected to become closely related to the velocity of its neighboring particles. These effects of correlation are assumed to be absent in the derivation of the Boltzmann equation since mean free paths in a rarefied gas are of the order of 10 5 cm, particles that interact in a collision have come from quite different regions of gas, and would be expected not to interact again with each other over a time involving many collisions. 

On the continuum level of gas flow, the Navier-Stokes equation forms the basic mathematical model, in which dependent variables are macroscopic properties such as the velocity, density, pressure, and temperature in spatial and time spaces instead of nf in the multi-dimensional phase space formed by the combination of physical space and velocity space in the microscopic model. As long as there are a sufficient number of gas molecules within the smallest significant volume of a flow, the macroscopic properties are equivalent to the average values of the appropriate molecular quantities at any location in a flow, and the Navier-Stokes equation is valid. However, when gradients of the macroscopic properties become so steep that their scale length is of the same order as the mean free path of gas molecules,, the Navier-Stokes model fails because conservation equations do not form a closed set in such situations. 

Any polymer contains some inner free space free volume distributed in a dynamic manner between its molecular chains (see Section 23.2). When it is exposed to a fluid (liquid or gas) the physical possibility exists for fluid absorption by the polymer, if the fluid molecules or atoms are small enough to fit into local regions of this distributed space during kinetic movements. As this happens, subsequent kinetic chain motion must allow for the newly absorbed fluid molecules and, hence, the polymer s overall volume will adjust accordingly this action will coincide with the formation of more free space around these fluid molecules—so the polymer will swell a little. This process will be continued until an equilibrium is reached ( equilibrium swelling ), by which time the extent of swelling can be considerable. The amount of fluid taken up and the rate at which this happens are both important, and are discussed in this and following sections. 

Hybrid MPC-MD schemes may be constructed where the mesoscopic dynamics of the bath is coupled to the molecular dynamics of solute species without introducing explicit solute-bath intermolecular forces. In such a hybrid scheme, between multiparticle collision events at times x, solute particles propagate by Newton s equations of motion in the absence of solvent forces. In order to couple solute and bath particles, the solute particles are included in the multiparticle collision step [40]. The above equations describe the dynamics provided the interaction potential is replaced by Vj(rJVs) and interactions between solute and bath particles are neglected. This type of hybrid MD-MPC dynamics also satisfies the conservation laws and preserves phase space volumes. Since bath particles can penetrate solute particles, specific structural solute-bath effects cannot be treated by this rule. However, simulations may be more efficient since the solute-solvent forces do not have to be computed. 

Multiparticle collision dynamics describes the interactions in a many-body system in terms of effective collisions that occur at discrete time intervals. Although the dynamics is a simplified representation of real dynamics, it conserves mass, momentum, and energy and preserves phase space volumes. Consequently, it retains many of the basic characteristics of classical Newtonian dynamics. The statistical mechanical basis of multiparticle collision dynamics is well established. Starting with the specification of the dynamics and the collision model, one may verify its dynamical properties, derive macroscopic laws, and, perhaps most importantly, obtain expressions for the transport coefficients. These features distinguish MPC dynamics from a number of other mesoscopic schemes. In order to describe solute motion in solution, MPC dynamics may be combined with molecular dynamics to construct hybrid schemes that can be used to explore a variety of phenomena. The fact that hydrodynamic interactions are properly accounted for in hybrid MPC-MD dynamics makes it a useful tool for the investigation of polymer and colloid dynamics. Since it is a particle-based scheme it incorporates fluctuations so that the reactive and nonreactive dynamics in small systems where such effects are important can be studied. 

Matter (anything that has mass and occupies space) can exist in one of three states solid, liquid, or gas. At the macroscopic level, a solid has both a definite shape and a definite volume. At the microscopic level, the particles that make up a solid are very close together and many times are restricted to a very regular framework called a crystal lattice. Molecular motion (vibrations) exists, but it is slight. 

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