Effect of ultrafast diffusion on adsorption, desorption, and reaction processes over heterogeneous surfaces

Abstract

The effect of ultrafast diffusion is studied on reaction-diffusion processes in heterogeneous media, as encountered in catalysis and field emission microscopy. The reaction-diffusion equations describe adsorption, desorption, and reaction processes for two adspecies, for instance, on a paraboloidal heterogeneous surface in the presence of an external electric field. Using multiscale analysis, we show that the fast adspecies rapidly reaches a quasiequilibrium spatial distribution, characterized by a nonequilibrium chemical potential of the fast adspecies. An ordinary differential equation is derived for the time evolution of the nonequilibrium chemical potential. Numerical simulations are performed under different conditions, which confirm the convergence of the dynamics for finite diffusion toward the ultrafast diffusion limit predicted by our multiscale analysis. The numerical simulations also demonstrate that electric fields may induce important diffusive currents on heterogeneous surfaces under the conditions of field emission microscopy.