Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 August 2010
Introduction
This chapter introduces the concept of diffusion and other associated forms of translational motion such as flow, together with their physical significance. Measurements of translational motion and their interpretation are necessarily tied to a mathematical framework. Consequently, a detailed coverage of the mathematics, including the partial differential equation known as the diffusion equation, is presented. Finally, the common techniques for measuring diffusion are discussed.
Types of translational motion – physical interpretation and significance
‘Diffusion’ is used in the scientific literature with imprecision and ambiguity as there are a number of types of diffusion. With respect to molecular motion, diffusion is used to denote self-diffusion, mutual diffusion and ‘distinct’ (not in the sense of individual to a species) diffusion coefficients. Confusion arises since, although related and having the same units (i.e., m2s−1), these phenomena are physically distinct. The confusion is exacerbated in the NMR literature with the term ‘spin-diffusion’ which is a distinct NMR cross relaxation – based phenomenon involving the random migration of magnetisation via mutual spin flips in neighbouring nuclei, even though it can be measured using techniques related to those outlined in this book. In this book ‘diffusion’ signifies self-diffusion, which will also be referred to as translational diffusion, although some consideration will be given to mutual diffusion since many of the alternative methods for measuring diffusion, especially those based on scattering, provide information on mutual diffusion which is often compared with the results of NMR measurements of translational diffusion.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.