Hertz–Knudsen equation


In surface chemistry, the Hertz–Knudsen equation, also known as Knudsen-Langmuir equation describes evaporation rates, named after Heinrich Hertz and Martin Knudsen.

Applications

Non-dissociative adsorption (Langmuirian adsorption)

The Hertz–Knudsen equation describes the sticking of gas molecules on a surface by expressing the time rate of change of the concentration of molecules on the surface as a function of the pressure of the gas and other parameters:
where:
QuantityDescription
ASurface area
NNumber of gas molecules
φFlux of the gas molecules
αSticking coefficient of the gas molecules onto the surface, 0 ≤ α ≤ 1
pThe gas pressure
MMolar mass
mMass of a particle
kBBoltzmann constant
TTemperature
RGas constant
NAAvogadro constant