Impact of the solute exclusion on the bed longitudinal diffusion coefficient and particle intra-tortuosity determined by ISEC

• A new model has been proposed to evaluate the effective pore diffusion.
• This model takes into account that particle tortuosity depends on the molecule size.
• Better agreement between model and data obtained with the peak parking method.

The effective diffusion coefficient of non retained toluene and polystyrenes compounds was measured by the peak parking method for two columns packed with mesoporous silica. Different models used to predict the effective diffusion are compared. These models include the conventional Knox time-averaged model and some effective medium theory models such as Maxwell, Landauer, Garnett or Torquato models. In all these models the effective intraparticle diffusion coefficient is needed. It is derived here, in non-adsorbing conditions, from internal porosity, hindrance factor, which can be estimated with the Renkin correlation, and internal tortuosity, which can be considered as either constant or calculated by the Weissberg equation τ = 1 − plnɛ, where ɛ is the accessible particle porosity and p a parameter characteristic of the topology. The experimental effective diffusion coefficients of toluene and polystyrenes were found to be in good agreement with the values predicted by the Maxwell, or Torquato models, provided the internal tortuosity is calculated by using the Weissberg equation.