The IVIDIL experiment onboard the ISS: Thermodiffusion in the presence of controlled vibrations

The IVIDIL (Influence of VIbrations on DIffusion in Liquids) experiment was aimed at utilizing the International Space Station for investigating the effects of vibrations on liquid diffusion and thermodiffusion. The SODI-IVIDIL project of ESA is gathering together European, Canadian and Russian researchers with complementary skills to prepare and carry out the experiment, to process the raw data and perform numerical modeling of the phenomena. The experiment IVIDIL started on the October 5, 2009. In total 55 experimental runs were successfully completed by 20 January, 2010. A general description of the ISS facility related to the diffusion experiments and accessible for European researchers is briefly presented and some details about IVIDIL instrument are given. The scientific interest of this short article is focused on one of the objectives of the experiment: performing precise measurements of diffusion and thermodiffusion coefficients for binary mixtures in the absence of gravity. We demonstrate possibility of the experimental environment and report on the first results related to measurements of mass transport coefficients in the mixture with the negative Soret effect: 10% isopropanol (IPA)–90% water.