Open AccessOn the recombination of the ions produced by Röntgen rays in gases and vapours
Publication year - 1913
Publication title -
proceedings of the royal society of london. series a, containing papers of a mathematical and physical character
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2053-9150
pISSN - 0950-1207
DOI - 10.1098/rspa.1913.0046
Subject(s) - ion , chemistry , sign (mathematics) , atomic physics , recombination , analytical chemistry (journal) , diffusion , physics , thermodynamics , chromatography , mathematics , mathematical analysis , biochemistry , organic chemistry , gene
In a space containing both positive and negative ions the concentration of tends ions tends to diminish as a result of the union of ions of opposite sign. The number of ions of each sign which disappear in unit time is proportional to the number of collisions between ions of opposite sign. This is proportional to the product of the concentrations of the two kinds of ions and it is customary to express the change in the form of the equationdn 1 /dt = —αn 1 n 2 =dn 2 /dt , wheren 1 andn 2 are the numbers of positive and negative ions respectively in unit volume, and α is a constant for a gas at a given temperature and pressure; α is called the coefficient of recombination of the ions. When the concentrations of the two kinds of ions are equal the equation takes the simple formdn /dt = —αn 2 , the solution of which isn 0 being the concentration of the ions initially, andn the concentration after an interval of timet . In what has been said above the effect of diffusion is supposed to be negligible.