Knudsen Diffusion - Knudsen Self Diffusion

Knudsen Self Diffusion

In the Knudsen diffusion regime, the molecules do not interact with one another, so that they move in straight lines between points on the pore channel surface. Self-diffusivity is a measure of the translational mobility of individual molecules. Under conditions of thermodynamic equilibrium, a molecule is tagged and its trajectory followed over a long time. If the motion is diffusive, and in a medium without long-range correlations, the squared displacement of the molecule from its original position will eventually grow linearly with time (Einstein’s equation). To reduce statistical errors in simulations, the self-diffusivity, of a species is defined from ensemble averaging Einstein’s equation over a large enough number of molecules,N :

Read more about this topic:  Knudsen Diffusion