Dynamic thermodiffusion model for binary liquid mixtures

Following the nonequilibrium thermodynamics approach, we develop a dynamic model to emulate thermodiffusion process and propose expressions for estimating the thermal diffusion factor in binary nonassociating liquid mixtures. Here, we correlate the net heat of transport in thermodiffusion with parameters, such as the mixture temperature and pressure, the size and shape of the molecules, and mobility of the components, because the molecules have to become activated before they can move. Based on this interpretation, the net heat of transport of each component can be somehow related to the viscosity and the activation energy of viscous flow of the same component defined in Eyring's reaction-rate theory [S. Glasstone, K. J. Laidler, and H. Eyring, The Theory of Rate Processes: The Kinetics of Chemical Reactions, Viscosity, Diffusion and Electrochemical Phenomena (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1941)]. This modeling approach is different from that of Haase and Kempers, in which thermodiffusion is considered as a function of the thermostatic properties of the mixture such as enthalpy. In simulating thermodiffusion, by correlating the net heat of transport with the activation energy of viscous flow, effects of the above mentioned parameters are accounted for, to some extent of course. The model developed here along with Haase-Kempers and Drickamer-Firoozabadi models linked with the Peng-Robinson equation of sate are evaluated against the experimental data for several recent nonassociating binary mixtures at various temperatures, pressures, and concentrations. Although the model prediction is still not perfect, the model is simple and easy to use, physically justified, and predicts the experimental data very good and much better than the existing models.