FAST AND CONVENIENT IMPLEMENTATION OF THE TAYLOR DISPERSION METHOD

A highly labor-efficient implementation of the Taylor dispersion metho d for measuring mutual diffusion coefficients in binary liquid systems is described. The experimental setup has been fully automated; it is possible to measure the diffusion coefficients over the whole concentr ation range in a single experiment using standard HPLC equipment. Soft ware has been developed for processing the data; diffusion coefficient s can be calculated from the measured concentration against time curve in various ways (e.g. from the first and second moments and by fittin g procedures) within a few seconds. Experiments on the methanol + wate r system (25 and 35 degrees C) and the ethanol + water system (25 and 40 degrees C) have an accuracy of 0.5-1.5%.