Dissociation under a Temperature Gradient

Abstract

If a gas, each of whose molecules is capable of dissociating into two similar molecules, be kept at a constant temperature, it would attain an equilibrium state in which the rate at which double molecules dissociate is equal to the rate at which they are formed by recombination of single molecules, there being a different equilibrium state for each different temperature. If, now, the gas be subjected to a temperature gradient, the concentrations necessary for equilibrium would be different at different points, so there would be diffusion between the two kinds of molecules, a steady state being attained when the rate of diffusion of double molecules into any region is equal to their excess rate of decomposition over their rate of formation within that region.