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    Mean Free Path Molecular Collisions

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    puneet
    The mean free path calculation assumes target molecules are stationary, but they are moving. Using the average relative velocity of randomly moving molecules yields a better expression. The refined expression treats molecules as hard spheres and uses Avogadro's number and the ideal gas law to determine the number of molecules per unit volume, leading to a final expression for the mean free path. Real molecules are not perfectly hard spheres, so further refinement considers electrical interactions and viscosity.

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    Mean Free Path Molecular Collisions

    Uploaded by

    puneet
    258 views7 pages
    The mean free path calculation assumes target molecules are stationary, but they are moving. Using the average relative velocity of randomly moving molecules yields a better expression. The refined expression treats molecules as hard spheres and uses Avogadro's number and the ideal gas law to determine the number of molecules per unit volume, leading to a final expression for the mean free path. Real molecules are not perfectly hard spheres, so further refinement considers electrical interactions and viscosity.

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    Molecular collisions

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    The mean free path calculation assumes target molecules are stationary, but they are moving. Using the average relative velocity of randomly moving molecules yields a better expression. The refined expression treats molecules as hard spheres and uses Avogadro's number and the ideal gas law to determine the number of molecules per unit volume, leading to a final expression for the mean free path. Real molecules are not perfectly hard spheres, so further refinement considers electrical interactions and viscosity.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    258 views7 pages

    Mean Free Path Molecular Collisions

    Uploaded by

    puneet
    The mean free path calculation assumes target molecules are stationary, but they are moving. Using the average relative velocity of randomly moving molecules yields a better expression. The refined expression treats molecules as hard spheres and uses Avogadro's number and the ideal gas law to determine the number of molecules per unit volume, leading to a final expression for the mean free path. Real molecules are not perfectly hard spheres, so further refinement considers electrical interactions and viscosity.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 7

    Mean Free Path

    The mean free path or average distance between collisions for a gas molecule may be
    estimated from kinetic theory. Serway's approach is a good visualization - if the molecules
    have diameter d, then the effective cross-section for collision can be modeled by

    Index
    Gas law
    concepts
    Kinetic
    theory
    concepts
    Reference:
    Rohlf
    Ch. 2

    using a circle of diameter 2d to represent a molecule's effective collision area while treating
    the "target" molecules as point masses. In time t, the circle would sweep out the volume
    shown and the number of collisions can be estimated from the number of gas molecules that
    were in that volume.

    The mean free path could then be taken as the length of the path divided by the number of
    collisions.

    The problem with this expression is that the average molecular velocity is used, but the target
    molecules are also moving. The frequency of collisions depends upon the average relative
    velocity of the randomly moving molecules.
    Refinement of mean free path Calculation Frequency of collision
    HyperPhysics***** Thermodynamics

    R Nave

    Refinement of Mean Free Path


    The intuitive development of the mean free path expression suffers from a significant flaw it assumes that the "target" molecules are at rest when in fact they have a high average
    velocity. What is needed is the average relative velocity, and the calculation of that velocity
    from the molecular speed distribution yields the result
    Show
    which revises the expression for the effective volume swept out in time t

    The resulting mean free path is

    The number of molecules per unit volume can be determined from Avogadro's number and
    the ideal gas law, leading to

    Go Back

    Index
    Kinetic
    theory
    concepts

    It should be noted that this expression for the mean free path of molecules treats them as
    hard spheres, whereas real molecules are not. For noble gases, the collisions are probably
    close to being perfectly elastic, so the hard sphere approximation is probably a good one.
    But real molecules may have a dipole moment and have significant electrical interaction as
    they approach each other. This has been approached by using an electrical potential for the
    molecules to refine the calculation, and also by using the measured viscosity of the gas as a
    parameter to refine the estimate of the mean free path of molecules in real gases.
    Reference:

    Wiki: mean free path


    Wiki: viscosity
    Gas viscosity

    Calculation

    HyperPhysics***** Thermodynamics

    Go Back

    R Nave

    Mean Free Path Calculation

    Index

    The mean free path equation depends upon the temperature and pressure as well as the
    molecular diameter.
    For pressure P0 =

    and temperature T=
    Molecules of diameter

    mmHg =
    K=

    inHg =

    kPa

    C=

    F,

    x 10-10 meters (angstroms)

    should have a mean free path of

    x 10^

    Kinetic
    theory
    concepts

    which is
    and

    times the molecular diameter


    times the average molecular separation of

    x 10^

    m.

    The values for pressure, temperature, and molecular diameter may be changed above to
    recalculate the mean free path. A nominal molecular diameter of 0.3nm = 3 x 10-10 m will
    give you a reasonable approximation. The pressure required for a given mean free path can
    be calculated by changing the value of the mean free path above. The calculation is not
    designed to allow any other changes (their values will be replaced unchanged by the
    calculation.)

    From the mean free path and the average velocity, the mean time between collisions and the
    frequency of collisions can be calculated.
    Example of mean free path compared to molecular separation.
    Relation of mean free path to viscosity

    HyperPhysics***** Thermodynamics

    R Nave

    Mean Free Path Perspective

    Go Back

    Index

    Gas law
    You may be surprised by the length of the mean free path compared to the average molecular concepts
    separation in an ideal gas. An atomic size of 0.3 nm was assumed to calculate the other
    Kinetic
    distances.
    theory
    concepts

    Mean Free Path Calculation Frequency of collision


    HyperPhysics***** Thermodynamics

    R Nave

    Average Relative Velocity


    In order to calculate the mean free path for a molecule of a gas, it is necessary to assess the
    average relative velocity of the molecules involved rather than just the average velocity of

    Go Back

    Index
    Gas law
    concepts
    Kinetic

    any given molecule. The relative velocity of any two molecules can be expressed in terms of
    their vector velocities.

    The magnitude of the relative velocity can be expressed as the square root of the scalar
    product of the velocity with itself.

    This expression can be expanded as follows.

    Taking the average of the terms leads to

    Since the same average velocity would be associated with each molecule, this becomes

    theory
    concepts

    Mean Free Path Calculation Frequency of collisions


    HyperPhysics***** Thermodynamics

    R Nave

    Go Back

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