Wednesday, November 27, 2019

physical chemistry - Why does CO2 diffuse through a butyl rubber membrane more readily than air?


I am a cyclist, and not a chemist. When I or my cycling buddies get a flat tire out on the road, after removing the offending sharp object (if any) remaining in the tire, we will typically replace the punctured butyl rubber inner tube with a new one, and then inflate the tire using a $\ce{CO2}$ cartridge.


Inflating the tire in this way takes less than a second to bring the pressure up to 120 psi. At home, naturally, we fill our tires with air rather than a $\ce{CO2}$ cartridge, using a floor pump.


When we fill our tire with an air pump the tire remains inflated for several days. But after filling it with $\ce{CO2}$, the tire is severely flat again by the next morning. $\ce{CO2}$ clearly diffuses through the butyl membrane very much more rapidly than air, even though $\ce{CO2}$ is a larger molecule than either $\ce{N2}$ or $\ce{O2}$. Is it the shape of the molecule? Or its chemical properties?




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