Comparison of Diffusion of Carbon Dioxide into Hydrocarbon Systems and Polymeric Solutions

Abstract

METZNER recently reported diffusion coefficients of ethylene and carbon dioxide into polymeric and colloidal solutions¹. We have measured absorption rates of carbon dioxide in mixtures of hydrocarbons of molecular weight 160–360. In this work, for a twenty-four-fold increase in viscosity the diffusion coefficients varied from 0.73 × 10⁻⁵ to 2.50 × 10⁻⁵ cm²/sec. These data can be interpreted by existing theories on diffusion². The values quoted by Metzner for diffusion of carbon dioxide into dilute solutions of carbopol and carboxy methyl cellulose are all within this range (1.8–2.4 × 10⁻⁵ cm²/sec) although the apparent viscosities of these solutions will be very much greater than that of the highest molecular weight hydrocarbon investigated (25 centipoise).