PNNL

Abstract

The diffusion coefficients of a benzyl-, sec-phenethyl-, and diphenylmethyl alcohol and the corresponding aryl carbonyls (benzaldehyde, acetophenone and benzophenone) were measured by Taylor’s dispersion method in both ethyl and isopropyl alcohol. The experimental values are compared to published transient grating measurements of the corresponding aryl ketyl radicals (benzyl-, sec-phenethyl-, and diphenylmethyl-ketyl radical). In general, the diffusion coefficient of the aryl alcohols and the corresponding aryl ketyl radicals are equivalent within experimental error. This work shows that the diffusion of ketyl radicals is not anomalously slow and that aryl alcohols are significantly better models than the corresponding aryl ketones for analyzing the diffusion of aryl ketyl radicals in both ethyl and isopropyl alcohol. Empirical estimates of the diffusion coefficients of aryl alcohols using the Spernol-Wirtz and Wilke-Chang modifications to the Stokes-Einstein diffusion equation do not adequately account for the interactions between the aryl ketyl radicals or aryl alcohols with the hydroxylic solvents ethyl and isopropyl alcohol. The excellent agreement between the experimental diffusion coefficients of the aryl alcohols and the corresponding ketyl radicals show that the transient grating method can provide accurate estimates for the diffusion coefficients of transient species. This is especially important when a stable model is not available, for example the pyranyl radical.