Thermal Diffusivity and Speed of Sound of Saturated Pentane from Light Scattering

Transport and thermodynamic properties of pentane are necessary for the design and verification of reactors in pentane isomerization and degradation processes. However, there are few experimental data of these properties, especially in the high-temperature region. In this work, the thermal diffusivity and the sound speed of pentane have measured by dynamic light scattering and Brillouin light scattering, respectively. Pentane has been investigated under saturated conditions over a wide temperature range, from about 300 K up to the liquid–vapor critical point. It is estimated that: the standard uncertainty of temperature is \(u(T) = 0.01\) K for the hydrodynamic region and \(u(T) = 0.026\) K for the critical region; the relative expanded uncertainty in the thermal diffusivity is \(U_\mathrm{r}(a) = 0.03\) and the relative expanded uncertainty in the speed of sound is \(U_\mathrm{r}(c_\mathrm{s}) = 0.005\) with a coverage factor of \(k = 2\). The thermal diffusivity and the sound-speed experimental data are also represented as functions of temperature. Finally, the results are discussed in detail in comparison with literature results and various prediction methods.