Thermophoresis

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Thermophoresis, also called thermodiffusion or Soret effect^[1], is the effect of a temperature gradient on multicomponent (or isotopic) mixtures of particles. Thermal diffusion is regarded as "positive" when molecules move from a hot to cold region and "negative" when the reverse is true. Typically the heavier/larger species in a mixture exhibits positive thermophoretic behavior while the lighter/smaller species exhibit negative behavior. This effect is relevant to planetary differentiation and is exploited in the manufacturing of optical fiber and Uranium enrichment.

[edit] References

1. ^ Stefan Duhr, and Dieter Braun (2006). "Why molecules move along a temperature gradient". PNAS 103: 19678–19682. doi:10.1073/pnas.0603873103. PMID 17164337.  [1]