CAPILLARY-WAVE MODEL OF GAS-LIQUID EXCHANGE

Data leading to the nucleation theory of accommodation of a solute gas by a liquid are reinterpreted in terms of a capillary-wave model, in which the growth of solvent clusters to some critical size is replaced by progressive absorption into a mobile liquid surface, and the clust er-size Variable is replaced by an effective coordination number. The new model accounts for the observed linear relationship between the en thalpy and entropy of activation for accommodation of a wide variety o f solutes in water on the basis of the statistical mechanics of the ab sorption process and provides an estimate of the rate of penetration i nto the liquid on the basis of the calculated capillary-wave spectrum.