A spherical ball of solid, nonporous naphthalene, a "moth ball," is suspended in still air. The naphthalene ball slowly sublimes, releasing the naphthalene into the surrounding air by a diffusion limited process.
1. Estimate the time required to reduce the diameter from 2 cm to 0.5 cm. when the surrounding air is at 347 K and 1.013 x 10^5 Pa. Naphthalene has a molecular weight of 128 g/mole, a solid density of 1.145 g/cm^3, a diffusion coefficient in air of 8.19 x 10^-6 m^2/s, and exerts a vapor pressure of 5 torr (670 Pa) at 347 K.