How to determine a boundary condition for diffusion at a thin membrane from experimental data.

Abstract

We present a method of deriving a boundary condition for diffusion at a thin membrane from experimental data. Based on experimental results obtained for normal diffusion of ethanol in water, we show that the derived boundary condition at a membrane contains a term with a Riemann-Liouville fractional time derivative of order 1/2. Such a form of the boundary condition shows that a transfer of particles through a thin membrane is a "long-memory process." The presented method is an example that an important part of the mathematical model of physical processes may be derived directly from experimental data.