A general analysis of reactive ion transport in dynamic equilibrium

Abstract

In a drift-tube analysis, an asymptotic solution for the transport of inter-reacting multiple ion swarms approaching to dynamic equilibrium is proposed. The solution describes a set of similar Gaussian profiles with two common ‘‘equilibrium’’ transport coefficients. Although all the profiles apparently aggregate to the same location, there exists a slight peak difference between arbitrary two spectra. The difference holds even in the equilibrium. A generalized equilibrium constant is defined by the quotient of two reaction-frequency determinants. Those four kinetic constants are uniquely determined from the kinetic coefficients of all ion species without any influence of the initial conditions. The discrepancy between the thermal equilibrium and dynamic equilibrium is briefly discussed.