Question:

What is diffusion what does Fick’s law tell us about diffusion?

Answer:

By the definition of diffusion,

“It is caused by random molecular motion that leads to complete mixing”.

Example:

If a few crystals of a colored material like copper sulfate are placed at the bottom of a tall bottle filled
with water, the color will slowly spread through the bottle. At first the color will be concentrated in the
bottom of the bottle. After a day it will penetrate upward a few centimeters. After several years the
solution will appear homogeneous.

According to Fick’s law Flux is directly proportional to concentration gradient and inversely proportional
to distance

where A is the area across which diffusion occurs,” ji “is the flux per unit area, Ci is
concentration, and z is distance.

Question:

Does diffusion always lead to mixing? I f it does explain it why and if it doesn’t give an
example?

Answer:

Question:

In contest of diffusion What do the thin film semi-infinite slab means?

Answer:

For the thin film steady state diffusion occur

Steady diffusion across a thin film. In this attack, we want to find both the diffusion flux and the
concentration profile. In other words, we want to determine how much solute moves across the film
and how the solute concentration changes within the film.
For the semi-infinite slab unsteady state diffusion occur. We consider a volume of solution that starts at
an interface and extends a long way. For semi-infinite slab. We want to find how the concentration
varies in this solution as a result of a concentration change at its interface. In mathematical terms, we
want to find the
concentration and flux as a function of position and time.

Question:

Will diffusion always produce convection? If doesn’t explain why? if does give an example?

Answer:

Diffusion causes convection. To be sure, convective flow can have many causes. For example, it can
occur because of pressure gradients or temperature differences. However, even in isothermal and
isobaric systems, diffusion will always produce convection. This was clearly stated by Maxwell in 1860:
"Mass transfer is due partly to the motion of translation and partly to that of agitation." In more modern
terms, we would say that any mass flux may include both convection and diffusion.

Diffusion with convection

The statement by Maxwell quoted earlier suggests that diffusion and convection always occur together,
that one cannot occur without the other. This fact sets diffusion apart from many other phenomena. For
example, thermal conduction can certainly occur without convection. [n contrast, diffusion generates its
own convection, so that understanding the process can be much more complicated, especially in
concentrated solutions.

Question:

The equation and solution of diffusion in concentrated solution are in applicable to that for diffusion
in dilute solution. Is this statement being true or not ?

Answer:

Diffusion in concentrated solutions is complicated by the convection caused by the diffusion process.
This convection must he handled with a more complete form of Fick's law, often including a reference
velocity. The best reference velocity is the volume average, for it is most frequently zero. The results in
this chapter are valid for both concentrated and dilute solutions; so they are more complete than the
limits of dilute solutions

Question:

Can heating and stirring facilitate diffusion in liquid why or why not?

Answer:

In gases and liquids, the rates of these diffusion processes can often be accelerated by agitation or
stirring. For example, the copper sulfate in the tall bottle can be completely mixed in a few minutes if
the solution is stirred. This accelerated mixing is not due to diffusion alone, but to the combination of
diffusion and stirring. Diffusion still depends on random molecular motions that take place over smaller
distances. The agitation or stirring is not a molecular process, but a macroscopic process that moves
portions of the fluid over much larger distances. After this macroscopic motion, diffusion mixes newly
adjacent portions of the fluid. In other cases, such as the dispersal of pollutants, the
agitation of wind or water produces effects qualitatively similar to diffusion; these effects, called
dispersion, will be treated separately.
By increasing temperature, the Kinetic energy of molecule will be increase than the collision increase,
eventually rate of diffusion will also increase.

Question:

What are the typical values of diffusion coefficient in liquid solid and gases?

Answer:

Diffusion coefficients in gases, At 1 atmosphere and near room temperature, these values lie between
0.1 and 1 cm2/sec.
Diffusion coefficients in liquid fall close to 10- 5 cm2/sec
Diffusion coefficients in solid are slower 10-30 cm2/sec

Question:

When dealing with problem of diffusion in concentrated solution how to choose reference velocity?

Answer:

The complete description of mass transfer requires separating the contributions of diffusion and
convection. The usual way of effecting this separation is to assume that these two effects are additive

In more exact terms, we define the total mass flux n1 as the mass transported per area per time relative
to fixed coordinates. This flux, in turn, is used to define an average solute velocity V1

where Va is some convective "reference" velocity. The first term J1A on the right-hand side
of this equation represents the diffusion flux, and the second term C1a describes the
convection.
Interestingly, there is no clear choice for what this convective reference velocity
should be. It might be the mass average velocity that is basic to the equations of motion,
which in turn are a generalization of Newton's second law. It might be the velocity of the
solvent, because that species is usually present in excess. We cannot automatically tell.
We only know that we should choose va so that va is zero as frequently as possible. By
doing so, we eliminate convection essentially by definition, and we are left with a substantially
easier problem.

Question:

The stock Einstein equation for estimating diffusion coefficient in liquid by assuming rigid sphere in a
contain

Answer:

The most common basis for estimating diffusion coefficients in liquids is the Stokes- Einstein equation.
Coefficients calculated from this equation are accurate to only about twenty percent. Nonetheless, this
equation remains the standard against which alternative correlations are judged. The Stokes- Einstein
equation is

Where f is the friction coefficient of the solute, kB is Boltzmann's constant, J1 is the solvent viscosity, and
Ro is the solute radius. The temperature variation suggested by this equation is apparently correct, but it
is much smaller than effects of solvent viscosity and solute radius. A discussion of these larger effects
follows.
The diffusion coefficient varies inversely with viscosity when the ratio of solute to solvent radius exceeds
five. This behavior is reassuring because the Stokes- Einstein equation is derived by assuming a rigid
solute sphere diffusing in a continuum of solvent. Thus, for a large solute in a small solvent, seems
correct. When the solute radius is less than five times that of the solvent, Eq. breaks
down. This failure becomes worse as the solute size becomes smaller and smaller. Errors are especially
large in high-viscosity solvents; the diffusion seems to vary with a smaller power of viscosity often
around (-0.7). In extremely high-viscosity materials, diffusion becomes independent of viscosity: the
diffusion of sugar in jello is very nearly equal to the diffusion of sugar in water.