Dj. Kim et Na. Peppas, CONCENTRATION AND TEMPERATURE-DEPENDENCE OF DIFFUSIONAL DEBORAH NUMBER DURING DODECANE TRANSPORT IN CROSS-LINKED POLYSTYRENE, The Korean journal of chemical engineering, 13(2), 1996, pp. 123-128
The diffusional Deborah number, De, defined as the ratio of characteri
stic relaxation time to characteristic diffusion time was determined a
s a function of concentration and temperature in the dodecane transpor
t process in polystyrene. The characteristic relaxation time was obtai
ned from the viscoelastic properties of dodecane/polystyrene systems m
easured by a dynamic mechanical analyzer. The characteristic diffusion
time was obtained from the concentration and temperature dependence o
f the diffusion coefficient measured by NMR PGSE method. Above the roo
m temperature the Deborah number changed significantly during isotherm
al transport process; however, the transport mechanism did not deviate
from the Fickian transport as the order of De was still greater than
1. Around the room temperature the transport mechanisms represented by
the resulting diffusional Deborah number changed significantly as the
order of magnitude approached 1 with the temperature decreasing from
50 degrees C to the room temperature. The transport mechanism predicte
d from the diffusional Deborah number was verified by the diffusional
exponent, n, of an exponential time-dependence of the penetrant uptake
.