Vapor-phase mass transport effects

In addition to the reactor scale, which is measured in meters, vapor-phase mass transport effects can also be important in CVD at a much smaller scale, one measured in micrometers. This is often referred to as the feature scale . On this scale, the gas is generally in the transition or molecular flow regimes, rather than continuum flow. Mass transport on this scale plays an important role in the CVI processes discussed in Chapter 6. These phenomena are also important in CVD involving high-aspect ratio features, which can occur unintentionally in some growth morphologies and deliberately in microelectronics applications. 

In general, all elements of the mass transfer matrix depend on the process variables, and in particular on the vapor phase composition. The mass transfer mechanisms in membranes can be rather complicated. However, for the conceptual analysis of the considered membrane process, it is not advantageous to go into the details of mass transport. Therefore, in the following the effective binary mass transfer coefficients k,j are assumed to be constants. 

Background. In the previous sections, we have considered alkali vapor transport from condensed phase systems in the absence of external influences, such as reactive gases. However, some of the component gases of combustion systems, such as H2O, HCl, SO2, O2, CO, and H2, can be expected to significantly modify alkali vapor transport through mass action effects or formation of new molecular species. Some representative cases are considered as follows. 

At high enough qualities and mass fluxes, however, it would be expected that the nucleate boiling would be suppressed and the heat transfer would be by forced convection, analogous to that for the evaporation for pure fluids. Shock [282] considered heat and mass transfer in annular flow evaporation of ethanol water mixtures in a vertical tube. He obtained numerical solutions of the turbulent transport equations and carried out calculations with mass transfer resistance calculated in both phases and with mass transfer resistance omitted in one or both phases. The results for interfacial concentration as a function of distance are illustrated in Fig. 15.112. These results show that the liquid phase mass transfer resistance is likely to be small and that the main resistance is in the vapor phase. A similar conclusion was reached in recent work by Zhang et al. [283] these latter authors show that mass transfer effects would not have a large effect on forced convective evaporation, particularly if account is taken of the enhancement of the gas mass transfer coefficient as a result of interfacial waves. 

The authors [13] also proposed a multiphase mass transport model for toluene nitration, the details of, which are given in Fig. 2.4. It is based on the formation of a thin aqueous film aroimd the hydrophilic catalyst particles, which are dispersed in toluene medium. The model also accounted for the existence of vapor phase over the liquid-liquid-solid reaction medium. The major mass transfer resistances are offered by the liquid film around the catalyst particles and in the catalyst pores. The aqueous film and the liquid in the pores constitute the micro environment necessary to facilitate the desired level of lattice transformation in the catalyst particles. Figure 2.4 also shows the concept of the microenvironment within and around the catalyst particle. These studies have demonstrated that shape selectively effect of zeolite Beta catalyst is significantly enhanced by the specific microenvironment created within and around the catalyst particles. This has significantly enhanced the para-selectivity from 0.7 to 1.5. The microenvironment has also improved the accessibility of reactant molecules to the catalyst active sites. 

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