Electrodeless discharge as detector in the rapid determination of binary diffusion coefficient of gases†

It has been recently shown that an electrodeless discharge can servo as a detector of high sensitivity in the chromatography of gases and vapours. The technique has also been used for the determination of inter-diffusion coefficients of gases. This procedure, however, being found lengthy, has been modified in the present work to permit a rapid determination of the diffusion coefficients. For this, the packed chromatographic column has been replaced by a long open tube. The results for the binary diffusion coefficients of some organic vapours into nitrogen obtained by this method are presented here.