Reference Correlations for the Thermal Conductivity of 13 Inorganic Molten Salts.

The available experimental data for the thermal conductivity of 13 inorganic molten salts have been critically examined with the intention of establishing thermal conductivity reference correlations. All experimental data have been categorized into primary and secondary data according to the quality of measurement specified by a series of criteria. Standard reference correlations are proposed for the following molten salts (with estimated uncertainties at the 95 % confidence level given in parentheses): LiNO3 (7 %), NaNO3 (7 %), KNO3 (15 %), NaBr (15 %), KBr (15 %), RbBr (15 %), LiCl (17 %), NaCl (20 %), KCl (17 %), RbCl (17%), CsCl (10 %), NaI (17 %), and RbI (20 %).

Reference Correlations for the Thermal Conductivity of Liquid Bismuth, Cobalt, Germanium and Silicon.

The available experimental data for the thermal conductivity of liquid bismuth, cobalt, germanium and silicon have been critically examined with the intention of establishing thermal conductivity reference correlations. All experimental data have been categorized into primary and secondary data according to the quality of measurement specified by a series of criteria. The proposed standard reference correlations for the thermal conductivity of liquid bismuth, cobalt, germanium, and silicon are respectively characterized by uncertainties of 10, 15, 16 and 9.5% at the 95% confidence level.

New global communication process in thermodynamics: impact on quality of published experimental data.

Thermodynamic data are a key resource in the search for new relationships between properties of chemical systems that constitutes the basis of the scientific discovery process. In addition, thermodynamic information is critical for development and improvement of all chemical process technologies. Historically, peer-reviewed journals are the major source of this information obtained by experimental measurement or prediction. Technological advances in measurement science have propelled enormous growth in the scale of published thermodynamic data (almost doubling every 10 years). This expansion has created new challenges in data validation at all stages of the data delivery process. Despite the peer-review process, problems in data validation have led, in many instances, to publication of data that are grossly erroneous and, at times, inconsistent with the fundamental laws of nature. This article describes a new global data communication process in thermodynamics and its impact in addressing these challenges as well as in streamlining the delivery of the thermodynamic data from "data producers" to "data users". We believe that the prolific growth of scientific data in numerous and diverse fields outside thermodynamics, together with the demonstrated effectiveness and versatility of the process described in this article, will foster development of such processes in other scientific fields.

Diffusion coefficients for protein molecules in blood serum.

A new technique is described for the measurement of the self-diffusion coefficients of protein macromolecules in solution. The method makes use of the phenomenon of Taylor dispersion of a solute introduced into a solvent flowing in the laminar regime through a tube of circular section. Results are reported for the self-diffusion coefficient of cholesterol associated with lipoprotein molecules in dogs' serum at pH 7.4 in the temperature range 18-37 degrees C. The diffusivity of bovine serum albumin in serum has also been studied as a function of temperature at pH 7.4 and 4.7. In the more basic solution, measurements of the diffusivity as a function of protein concentration substantially agree with earlier work. For all the systems studied the diffusivity varies rapidly with temperature. The pH of the solution, in the case of bovine serum albumin, also has a significant effect on the diffusivity of the macromolecule. The latter observation is related to the amount of water bound to the protein molecule in solution.