Dispersion in open tubes and tubes packed with large glass beads : The Single Bead String Reactor

Abstract

A semi-quantitative description of the dispersion process in open tubes is presented for conditions prevailing in flow injection analysis. It is shown that uncoupling the two functions of the tube (i.e., mixing and creating a residence time) can be accomplished by making use of a simple mixing device followed by a tube packed with glass beads of relatively large diameter (up to 70% of the i.d. of the tube): this gives a single bead string reactor (s.b.s.r.). With a flow injection system consisting of such an s.b.s.r., longer residence times can be obtained without loss of peak height or loss of sampling frequency.