Verifying reciprocal relations for experimental diffusion coefficients in multicomponent mixtures

The goal of the present study is to verify the agreement of the available data on diffusion in ternary mixtures with the theoretical requirement of linear non-equilibrium thermodynamics consisting in symmetry of the matrix of the phenomenological coefficients. A common set of measured diffusion coefficients for a three-component mixture consists of four Fickian diffusion coefficients, each being reported separately. However, the Onsager theory predicts the existence of only three independent coefficients, as one of them disappears due to the symmetry requirement. Re-calculation of the Fickian diffusion coefficients into Onsager coefficients for a non-ideal mixture involves derivatives of the chemical potentials and, thus, should be based on a certain thermodynamic model (cubic equation of state (EoS), an activity coefficient model, etc.). Transformation of the Fickian diffusion coefficients into Onsager coefficients and a subsequent symmetry check make it possible to evaluate different thermodynamic models with regard to their possibility of being used for prediction of the transport properties. We performed several checks of this kind for ternary mixtures of hydrocarbons and alcohols, where extended sets of experimental data and reliable thermodynamic models were available. The sensitivity of the symmetry property to different thermodynamic parameters of the models was also checked. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.