A Simple Question about Diffusion and ion speed

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    Diffusion Ion Speed
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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on calculating the time it takes for an ion to travel 10 cm using the diffusion coefficient D = 9.3 x 10-5 cm2/s. The formula for estimating diffusion time is t = L2/D, which yields an approximate travel time of 12 days for the specified distance. This calculation provides a practical understanding of ion mobility in relation to diffusion processes.

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WarpedWatch
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Greetings,
I'm trying to get an intuitive understanding about a process involving an ion mobility that (I'm told) has D = 9.3 x 10-5 cm2/s. I'm assuming that D is a diffusion coefficient.

I'd like to know approximately how long it takes for the ion to travel about 10 cm. Would this be something that happens in a matter of femtoseconds, minutes, hours, weeks, years... or what? Unfortunately I don't have any more information than that, so is there some way to calculate (or just roughly guess) the ion speed based on D?

many thanks,
Mark
 
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The general approximation for diffusion time is [itex]t=L^2/D[/itex]. The exact answer depends upon the boundary conditions, but this estimate is good to within an order of magnitude. In your case: about 12 days.
 
Mapes,

That's great! Thanks very much for your help on this!
:smile:

Mark
 

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