Title

Heat and mass transfer and chemical transformation in a cerium nitrate droplet

Authors

Authors

B. Pathak; S. Basu;R. Kumar

Comments

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Abbreviated Journal Title

Int. J. Heat Mass Transf.

Keywords

Acoustic levitation; Heat and mass transfer; Chemical reaction; Droplet; vaporization; Nanoceria; Droplet agglomeration; PRECURSOR DROPLETS; THERMAL-DECOMPOSITION; VARIABLE PROPERTIES; VAPORIZATION; PLASMA; EVAPORATION; FIELD; PRESSURE; MODEL; Thermodynamics; Engineering, Mechanical; Mechanics

Abstract

This paper deals with the thermo-physical changes that a droplet undergoes when it is radiatively heated in a levitated environment. The heat and mass transport model has been developed along with chemical kinetics within a cerium nitrate droplet. The chemical transformation of cerium nitrate to ceria during the process is predicted using Kramers' reaction mechanism which justifies the formation of ceria at a very low temperature as observed in experiments. The rate equation modeled by Kramers is modified suitably to be applicable within the framework of a droplet, and predicts experimental results well in both bulk form of cerium nitrate and in aqueous cerium nitrate droplet. The dependence of dissociation reaction rate on droplet size is determined and the transient mass concentration of unreacted cerium nitrate is reported. The model is validated with experiments both for liquid phase vaporization and chemical reaction. Vaporization and chemical conversion are simulated for different ambient conditions. The competitive effects of sensible heating rate and the rate of vaporization with diffusion of cerium nitrate is seen to play a key role in determining the mass fraction of ceria formed within the droplet. Spatially resolved modeling of the droplet enables the understanding of the conversion of chemical species in more detail. (c) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Journal Title

International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

Volume

63

Publication Date

1-1-2013

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

301

Last Page

312

WOS Identifier

WOS:000320289900031

ISSN

0017-9310

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