Thermal diffusion in disperse systems

This paper discusses a theory for a new effect, the migration of solid dispersed particles initiated by a nonuniform temperature field. The reason for the motion is the inhomogeneity of the properties of a thin protective layer around a particle. The example of ionic dispersion shows that the sign of the coefficient of thermodiffusion depends on the magnitude of the electrostatic potential at the particle surface and the thickness of the Debye layer and that the coefficientis larger than the values known for molecular systems by a factor of 100 to 10000. In contrast to molecular systems, in disperse systems thermodiffusion should play a much more important role. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S1063-7761(99)01405-5].