thermal diffusion

American  

noun

Physical Chemistry.

1. the separation of constituents, often isotopes, of a fluid under the influence of a temperature gradient.

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Example Sentences

A Swedish scientist was beginning to speed up the process with gadgets called thermal diffusion tubes when the war stopped him.

From Time Magazine Archive

It gave the job to Cleveland's H. K. Ferguson Co., builder of the thermal diffusion unit* of the Oak Ridge atom bomb plant.

From Time Magazine Archive

The smallest of its three plants for separating uranium isotopes�the thermal diffusion process�was shut down and held as a standby.

From Time Magazine Archive

Working on a navy contract quietly and virtually single-handedly at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Lawrence’s former graduate student Philip Abelson had perfected a way of enriching uranium by thermal diffusion.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

Three weeks later, Groves ordered the erection of a 2,100-column thermal diffusion plant at Oak Ridge.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik