Modeling of facilitated transport in solid membranes containing various fixed site carriers

Abstract

The extended series resistor-capacitor (RC) circuit model was developed to account for the effects of various kinds of carriers incorporated in the solid membranes on a facilitated mass transport. The sensitivity analysis based on the arbitrarily chosen reference state shows the degree of sensitivity as follows: the extent Of pressure fluctuation > the number of hypothetical layers > the ratio of the total carrier concentration to the solute solubility by Henry's law approximate to the time scale ratio of diffusion to chemical reaction > the combining driving force for facilitated transport. Furthermore, the model can describe multiple diffusional pathways from 4 to infinity depending on the number of different types of carriers, which can occurs in a real system.