632 Dehumidifier
Virtually all metals available in sufficient purity have been stud-
ied by the de Haas–van Alphen effect. The effect is also the
most powerful probe of Fermi surface properties in alloys and
intermetallic compounds. See BAND THEORY OF SOLIDS; FERMI
SURFACE. [J.B.K.]
Dehumidifier Equipment designed to reduce the amount
of water vapor in the atmosphere. There are three methods by
which water vapor may be removed: (1) the use of sorbent mate-
rials, (2) cooling to the required dew point, and (3) compression
with aftercooling. See DEW POINT.
Sorbents are materials which are hygroscopic to water vapor.
Solid sorbents include silica gels, activated alumina, and alu-
minum bauxite. Liquid sorbents include halogen salts such as
lithium chloride, lithium bromide, and calcium chloride, and or-
ganic liquids such as ethylene, diethylene, and triethylene glycols
and glycol derivatives.
Solid sorbents may be used in static or dynamic dehumidi-
fiers. Bags of solid sorbent materials within packages of machine
tools, electronic equipment, and other valuable materials subject
to moisture damage constitute static dehumidifiers. A dynamic
dehumidifier for solid sorbent consists of a main circulating fan,
one or more beds of sorbent material, reactivation air fan, heater,
mechanism to change from dehumidifying to reactivation, and
aftercooler.
The liquid-sorbent dehumidifier consists of a main circulating
fan, sorbent-air contactor, sorbent pump, and reactivator includ-
ing contactor, fan, heater, and cooler. This unit will control the
effluent dew point at a constant level because dehumidification
and reactivation are continuous operations with a small part of
the sorbent constantly bled off from the main circulating system
and reactivated to the concentration required for the desired
effluent dew point.
A system employing the use of cooling for dehumidifying con-
sists of a circulating fan and cooling coil. The cooling coil may
use cold water obtained from wells or a refrigeration plant, or
may be a direct-expansion refrigeration coil. In place of a coil, a
spray washer may be used in which the air passes through two
or more banks of sprays of cold water or brine, depending upon
the dew-point temperature required.
Dehumidifying by compression and aftercooling is used when
the reduction of water vapor in a compressed-air system is
required. This is particularly important, for example, if the air
is used for automatic control instruments or cleaning of delicate
machined parts. The power required for compression systems is
so high compared to power requirements for dehumidifying by
either the sorbent or refrigeration method that the compression
system is not an economical one if dehumidifying is the only end
result required. [J.E.]
Dehydrogenation A reaction in which hydrogen is de-
tached from a molecule. The reaction is strongly endothermic,
and therefore heat must be supplied to maintain the reaction
temperature. When the detached hydrogen is immediately ox-
idized, two benefits accrue: (1) the conversion of reactants to
products is increased because the equilibrium concentration is
shifted toward the products (law of mass action); and (2) the
added exothermic oxidation reaction supplies the needed heat
of reaction. This process is called oxidative dehydrogenation. On
the other hand, excess hydrogen is sometimes added to a dehy-
drogenation reaction in order to diminish the complete breakup
of the molecule into many fragments.
The primary types of dehydrogenation reactions are vapor-
phase conversion of primary alcohols to aldehydes, vapor-phase
conversion of secondary alcohols to ketones, dehydrogenation
of a side chain, and catalytic reforming of naphthas and naph-
thenes in the presence of a platinum catalyst. All four of these
types of dehydrogenation reactions are of major industrial im-
portance. They account for the production of billions of pounds
of organic compounds that enter into the manufacture of lu-
bricants, explosives, plastics, plasticizers, and elastomers. See
HYDROGENATION; OXIDATION PROCESS. [J.W.Fu.]
Delay line A transmission line (as nearly dissipationless as
possible) or an electric network approximation of it which, if
terminated in its characteristic impedance, will reproduce at its
output a waveform applied to its input terminals with little dis-
tortion but at a time delayed by an amount dependent upon the
electrical length of the line.
Delay lines are also used for establishing a time sequence
for the occurrence of events. A delay line with a total length
equal to the greatest time delay required in a system may be
used as a basic element. Pulses occurring at intermediate times
may be obtained from taps at various points along the line. A
specific application is found in the synchronizing signal generator
of the television system. Also, the lumped-circuit delay line is an
essential element of the wide-band distributed amplifier.
When a signal is digital in nature, or consists of a series of
pulses, the series of pulses may be delayed by using a shift regis-
ter, which might, for example, consist of a chain of cascaded type
D flip-flops. If the register has n stages, the pulse series will appear
at the output delayed by a time (n – 1)T, where T is the interval
between consecutive pulses of the system timing clock. The same
function can be realized by using switched-capacitor circuits or
an array of charge-coupled devices. See CHARGE-COUPLED DE-
VICES; SWITCHED CAPACITOR; TRANSMISSION LINES. [G.M.G.]
Delayed neutron A neutron emitted spontaneously
from a nucleus as a consequence of excitation remaining from a
preceding radioactive decay event. Analogously, delayed emis-
sion of protons and alpha particles is also observed, but the
known delayed neutron emitters are more numerous, and some
of them have practical implications. In particular, they are of
importance in the control of nuclear chain reactors.
In a 235U nuclear reactor, about 0.7% of the neutrons are
delayed, the others being prompt. In a conventional, moder-
ated reactor, the prompt neutrons are born, slowed down, and
reabsorbed to produce the next fissions in a cycling time of
about 1 millisecond. (In a fast-neutron reactor, the time is much
shorter.) Consequently, if the reactor were to become overcritical
(more neutrons generated per millisecond than are absorbed or
leak out), the chain reaction would exponentiate or “run away,”
and the reactor might overheat itself and possibly cause a dan-
gerous accident unless the control rods could respond within a
few milliseconds to correct the situation. The fortunate presence
of the delayed neutrons eases the situation, because so long as
the reactor operates within the margin of 0.7% (“delayed crit-
ical”), the control rods can take as long as several seconds to
respond, and thus the chain reaction comes within the range
of easy and leisurely control. See NEUTRON; NUCLEAR FISSION;
REACTOR PHYSICS. [A.H.Sn.]
Deliquescence The absorption of atmospheric water va-
por by a crystalline solid until the crystal eventually dissolves
into a saturated solution. This behavior is well known for certain
salts such as hydrated calcium chloride, CaCl2 · 6H2O, and zinc
chloride, ZnCl2, but it is a property of all soluble salts in air of
sufficiently high humidity.
Thermodynamically, the condition for deliquescence is that
the partial pressure of the water vapor in the air exceeds the
vapor pressure (aqueous tension) of the water in the saturated
solution of the salt. The speed at which the process takes place
depends upon the rate of diffusion of water vapor into the crystal
lattice, crystal size, and other factors. The process will stop when
the water vapor in the atmosphere is depleted to the point at
which its partial pressure equals that of the saturated solution.
Crystalline solids also may absorb water by increasing their
water of hydration if the dissociation pressure of the hydrated
species to be formed is less than the partial pressure of the water