THE DIELECTRIC BEHAVIOR OF VAPORS ADSORBED ON SILICA GEL

Abstract

Experiments to determine the dielectric constants of adsorbed butane, ethyl chloride, and water on an activated silica at frequencies up to 3.7 Mc. per sec. are reported. No Debye-type dispersion was observed for the polar adsorbates down to −30 °C, the lowest temperature employed. Mixtures of ethyl chloride and water, and of butane and water, were also studied. The assumption that adsorption of ethyl chloride and water occurs with both adsorbates sharing two types of sites sufficed to explain the findings for this system. No explanation was apparent to account for the behavior of the butane–water system.Formulae due to Kurbatov and to Snelgrove and McIntosh have been used to interpret the results obtained with polar adsorbates. On the assumption that the adsorbates have densities equivalent to those for the liquid state at the same temperature, it is concluded that adsorbed water undergoes oscillatory motion. The first quantities of ethyl chloride adsorbed behave as though the molecules may rotate freely within an angle of 98°. The ethyl chloride adsorbed nearer the saturation pressure shows oscillatory motion, as a negligible temperature coefficient of the molar polarization is observed.