Measurement of the Thermal-Diffusion Factor of Dilute Neon–Xenon Mixtures with the Thermal-Diffusion Column

Apparatus and techniques were developed for obtaining the thermal-diffusion factor from static separation measurements in the thermal-diffusion column. Reduction of the column data does not depend on the use of a theoretically derived value of the convective remixing coefficient, Kc; however, a factor related to the ratio of experimental to theoretical values of Kc is used as a test of the consistency of the data with the theory of the column. The thermal-diffusion factor was obtained at an average temperature of 311°K for mixtures containing 1 at.% Ne, 99% Xe, and 1.3% Xe, 98.7% Ne. The results were in good agreement with the data of other investigators. The consistency test showed that the experiments were in good agreement with predictions based on a recently modified theory of the thermal-diffusion column.