Atmospheric pressure coated-wall flow-tube study of acetone adsorption on ice.

An atmospheric pressure variant of the coated-wall flow-tube technique in combination with a Monte Carlo simulation is presented. In a performance test of simple first-order wall loss, the Monte Carlo simulation, which uses a simplified model of transport in laminar flow, reproduced results of an analytical solution of the transport equations in a flow tube. This technique was then used to investigate the reversible adsorption of acetone on ice films between 203 and 223 K and a surface coverage of below 5% of a formal monolayer. Simulation of the experimental uptake traces allowed retrieving an adsorption enthalpy of -46 +/- 3 kJ mol(-1) for acetone on ice, which is in good agreement with other static and flow-tube methods. For the experimental conditions adopted here, the transport of acetone molecules along the ice film is governed by equilibrium thermodynamics. Therefore, the surface accommodation coefficient, S(0), and the preexponential factor, tau(0), for the activated desorption cannot be independently determined. These two main microphysical parameters describing partitioning can rather be estimated through their relation to the adsorption entropy. A first estimate for S(0) of acetone on ice in the range of 0.004-0.043 is given.