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In dilute aqueous solutions the diffusion coefficients of most ions are similar and have values that at room temperature are in the range of (0.6–2) × 10 −9 m 2 /s. For biological molecules the diffusion coefficients normally range from 10 −10 to 10 −11 m 2 /s.
The higher the diffusivity (of one substance with respect to another), the faster they diffuse into each other. Typically, a compound's diffusion coefficient is ~10,000× as great in air as in water. Carbon dioxide in air has a diffusion coefficient of 16 mm 2 /s, and in water its diffusion coefficient is 0.0016 mm 2 /s. [1] [2]
D is the diffusion coefficient that controls the speed of the diffusive process, and is typically expressed in meters squared over second. If the diffusion coefficient D is not constant, but depends on the concentration c (or P in the second case), then one gets the nonlinear diffusion equation .
As seen in the heat equation, [5] =, one way to view thermal diffusivity is as the ratio of the time derivative of temperature to its curvature, quantifying the rate at which temperature concavity is "smoothed out".
The self-diffusion coefficient of water has been experimentally determined with high accuracy and thus serves often as a reference value for measurements on other liquids. The self-diffusion coefficient of neat water is: 2.299·10 −9 m 2 ·s −1 at 25 °C and 1.261·10 −9 m 2 ·s −1 at 4 °C. [2]
If the diffusion coefficient depends on the density then the equation is nonlinear, otherwise it is linear. The equation above applies when the diffusion coefficient is isotropic ; in the case of anisotropic diffusion, D is a symmetric positive definite matrix , and the equation is written (for three dimensional diffusion) as:
The Fourier number can be derived by nondimensionalizing the time-dependent diffusion equation.As an example, consider a rod of length that is being heated from an initial temperature by imposing a heat source of temperature > at time = and position = (with along the axis of the rod).
where L is the characteristic length, u the local flow velocity, D the mass diffusion coefficient, Re the Reynolds number, Sc the Schmidt number, Pr the Prandtl number, and α the thermal diffusivity, = where k is the thermal conductivity, ρ the density, and c p the specific heat capacity.