Diffusivities of Ternary Mixtures of n-Alkanes with Dissolved Gases by Dynamic Light Scattering.

Theoretical approaches suggest that dynamic light scattering (DLS) signals from low-molecular-weight ternary mixtures are governed by fluctuations in temperature as well as two individual contributions from fluctuations in concentration that are related to the eigenvalues of the Fick diffusion matrix. Until now, this could not be proven experimentally in a conclusive way. In the present study, a detailed analysis of DLS signals in ternary mixtures consisting of n-dodecane (n-C12H26) and n-octacosane (n-C28H58) with dissolved hydrogen (H2), carbon monoxide (CO), or water (H2O) as well as of n-C12H26 or n-C28H58 with dissolved H2 and CO is given for temperatures up to 523 K and pressures up to 4.1 MPa. Thermal diffusivities of pure n-C12H26 and n-C28H58 as well as thermal and mutual diffusivities of their binary mixtures being the basis for the ternary mixtures with dissolved gas were studied for comparison purposes. For the investigated ternary mixtures, three individual signals could be distinguished in the time-resolved analysis of scattered light intensity by using photon correlation spectroscopy (PCS). For the first time, it could be evidenced that these signals are clearly associated with hydrodynamic modes. In most cases, the fastest mode observable for ternary mixtures is associated with the thermal diffusivity. The two further modes obviously related to the molecular mass transport are observable on different time scales and comparable to the modes associated with the concentration fluctuations in the respective binary mixtures. Comparison of the experimental data with results from molecular dynamics simulations revealed very good agreement.

Simultaneous determination of thermal and mutual diffusivity of binary mixtures of n-octacosane with carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and water by dynamic light scattering.

It is demonstrated that thermal and mutual diffusivities of binary mixtures of n-octacosane (n-C28H58) with carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H2), and water (H2O) are simultaneously accessible by dynamic light scattering (DLS). As the light-scattering signals originating from thermal and concentration fluctuations appear in similar time scales, different data evaluation strategies were tested to achieve minimum uncertainties in the resulting transport properties. To test the agreement of the respective theoretical model with the DLS signals in the regression, an improved multifit procedure is introduced. With the selected data evaluation strategy, uncertainties of 4 to 15% and 4 to 30% in the thermal and mutual diffusivities, respectively, could be obtained for the binary mixtures. The mutual diffusivities for the mixtures measured at temperatures ranging from 398 to 523 K and pressures of 5 to 30 bar at saturation conditions are in good agreement with molecular dynamics simulations and data from the literature.