Sandra L. Lednovich

Bio: Sandra L. Lednovich is an academic researcher from Yale University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Diethylene glycol & Evaporation. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 1 publications receiving 71 citations.

Absolute evaporation rates for some polar and nonpolar liquids

Abstract: A method was developed for providing continuously wiped and, therefore, clean liquid surfaces in vacuo. By means of a mass spectrometer detector, the absolute evaporation flux from such clean surfaces was measured for diethylene glycol, glycerine, dibutyl phthalate, and oleic acid. The molecular flux from equilibrium vapor was also measured by the same detector. The ratio of the former to the latter, the evaporation coefficient, was found in each case to be close to unity and independent of the temperature.

Dynamics and Kinetics at the Gas−Liquid Interface

Abstract: This article reviews two approaches to exploring collisions and reactions between gases and liquids. We first describe molecular beam scattering experiments, which reveal the detailed ways in which gas atoms and molecules scatter from, accommodate on, and react with low vapor pressure liquids. We then discuss droplet flow tube experiments, which uncover the kinetics of the uptake of reactive and nonreactive gases in water and in aqueous solutions. Our goals are to develop simple, predictive rules for describing the fate of gas molecules coming into contact with the surface of liquids.

Photoelectron spectroscopy of liquid water, some alcohols, and pure nonane in free micro jets

Abstract: The recently developed technique of accessing volatile liquids in a high vacuum environment by using a very thin liquid jet is implemented to carry out the first measurements of photoelectron spectra of pure liquid water, methanol, ethanol, 1-propanol, 1-butanol, and benzyl alcohol as well as of liquid n-nonane. The apparatus, which consists of a commercial hemispherical (10 cm mean radius) electron analyzer and a hollow cathode discharge He I light source is described in detail and the problems of the sampling of the photoelectrons in such an environment are discussed. For water and most of the alcohols up to six different electronic bands could be resolved. The spectra of 1-butanol and n-nonane show two weakly discernable peaks from which the threshold ionization potential could be determined. A deconvolution of the photoelectron spectra is used to extract ionization potentials of individual molecular bands of molecules near the surface of the liquid and shifts of the order of 1 eV compared to the gas phase are observed. A molecular orientation for water molecules at the surface of liquid water is inferred from a comparison of the relative band strengths with the gas phase. Similar effects are also observed for some of the alcohols. The results are discussed in terms of a simple “Born-solvation” model.

Evaporation of freely suspended single droplets: experimental, theoretical and computational simulations

Abstract: Evaporation is ubiquitous in nature. This process influences the climate, the formation of clouds, transpiration in plants, the survival of arctic organisms, the efficiency of car engines, the structure of dried materials and many other phenomena. Recent experiments discovered two novel mechanisms accompanying evaporation: temperature discontinuity at the liquid-vapour interface during evaporation and equilibration of pressures in the whole system during evaporation. None of these effects has been predicted previously by existing theories despite the fact that after 130 years of investigation the theory of evaporation was believed to be mature. These two effects call for reanalysis of existing experimental data and such is the goal of this review. In this article we analyse the experimental and the computational simulation data on the droplet evaporation of several different systems: water into its own vapour, water into the air, diethylene glycol into nitrogen and argon into its own vapour. We show that the temperature discontinuity at the liquid-vapour interface discovered by Fang and Ward (1999 Phys. Rev. E 59 417-28) is a rule rather than an exception. We show in computer simulations for a single-component system (argon) that this discontinuity is due to the constraint of momentum/pressure equilibrium during evaporation. For high vapour pressure the temperature is continuous across the liquid-vapour interface, while for small vapour pressures the temperature is discontinuous. The temperature jump at the interface is inversely proportional to the vapour density close to the interface. We have also found that all analysed data are described by the following equation: da/dt = P(1)/(a + P(2)), where a is the radius of the evaporating droplet, t is time and P(1) and P(2) are two parameters. P(1) = -λΔT/(q(eff)ρ(L)), where λ is the thermal conductivity coefficient in the vapour at the interface, ΔT is the temperature difference between the liquid droplet and the vapour far from the interface, q(eff) is the enthalpy of evaporation per unit mass and ρ(L) is the liquid density. The P(2) parameter is the kinetic correction proportional to the evaporation coefficient. P(2) = 0 only in the absence of temperature discontinuity at the interface. We discuss various models and problems in the determination of the evaporation coefficient and discuss evaporation scenarios in the case of single- and multi-component systems.

A molecular beam study of the evaporation of water from a liquid jet

Abstract: A method to maintain a clean surface of a liquid in a high vacuum is described. Using a very thin and fast liquid jet it is not only possible to prevent freezing of the liquid but also to reduce the number of collisions between evaporating molecules to negligibly small values. Thus many of the standard, vacuum dependent, particle probing techniques for solid surfaces can be used for studies of rapidly vaporizing, high vapor pressure liquids. In a first molecular beam investigation we have used time-of-flight analysis to measure the velocity distribution of H2O molecules vaporizing from thin jets of pure liquid water. The experiments were carried out for liquid jet diameters between 50 and 5 µm. In this range the expanding vapor is observed to undergo the transition to the collision-free molecular flow regime. From the measured velocity distributions the local surface temperature is determined to be less than 210 K. This appears to be the lowest temperature ever reported for supercooled liquid water.

Molecular beam studies of gas-liquid interfaces.

Abstract: ▪ Abstract Molecular beam scattering experiments provide a way to disentangle the elementary steps involved in energy transfer and chemical reactions between gases and liquids. After surveying the history and recent progress in this field, we review studies of the kinematics of gas-liquid collisions and proton exchange of HCl, DCl, and HBr with supercooled sulfuric acid and liquid glycerol. These experiments help to clarify the role of the surface region in controlling trapping and interfacial- and bulk-phase reactions.