Kirkwood-Buff Analysis of Binary and Ternary Systems Consisting of Alcohols (Methanol, Ethanol, 1-Propanol, and 2-Propanol), Water, and n-Hexane to Understand the Formation of Surfactant-Free Microemulsions

Surfactant-free microemulsion (SFME) represents a class of fluid mixtures that can form microheterogeneous structures without detergents, offering an environmentally benign alternative to traditional microemulsions. However, the formation mechanism is still elusive. This work applies the Kirkwood-Buff theory to mixtures of alcohols, water, and n-hexane to elucidate the SFME formation mechanism. To ensure robust calculation of the Kirkwood-Buff integrals (KBIs), we construct a data set of densities and excess free energies of binary and ternary systems. Multiple excess Gibbs free energy models are assessed against this data set to select the most suitable model reproducing the experimental results. In addition, we introduce statistical methods to determine the optimal polynomial order of the Redlich-Kister correlation for the excess volume data. We first validate our methodology in binary systems. Then, we extend the calculation method to ternary mixtures. The KBI calculation results reveal that the alcohol-hexane and water-hexane interactions do not significantly affect SFME formation. In contrast, the interplay among water-water, water-alcohol, and alcohol-alcohol interactions critically influences the ability of a liquid mixture to form SFME structures. SFME systems exhibit the facile formation of water aggregates enveloped by alcohols, whereas non-SFME systems demonstrate homogeneous alcohol/water droplets dispersed in an oil continuous medium.

Thermodynamic Behavior of (2-Propanol + 1,8-Cineole) Mixtures: Isothermal Vapor-Liquid Equilibria, Densities, Enthalpies of Mixing, and Modeling

Vapor pressures and other thermodynamic properties of liquids, such as density and enthalpy of mixtures, are the key parameters in chemical engineering for designing new process units, and are also essential for understanding the physical chemistry, macroscopic and molecular behavior of fluid systems. In this work, vapor pressures between 278.15 and 323.15 K, densities and enthalpies of mixtures between 288.15 and 318.15 K for the binary mixture (2-propanol + 1,8-cineole) have been measured. From the vapor pressure data, activity coefficients and excess Gibbs energies were calculated via the Barker's method and the Wilson equation. Excess molar volumes and excess molar enthalpies were also obtained from the density and calorimetric measurements. Thermodynamic consistency test between excess molar Gibbs energies and excess molar enthalpies has been carried out using the Gibbs-Helmholtz equation. Robinson-Mathias, and Peng-Robinson-Stryjek-Vera together with volume translation of Peneloux equations of state (EoS) are considered, as well as the statistical associating fluid theory that offers a molecular vision quite suitable for systems having highly non-spherical or associated molecules. Of these three models, the first two fit the experimental vapor pressure results quite adequately; in contrast, only the last one approaches the volumetric behavior of the system. A brief comparison of the thermodynamic excess molar functions for binary mixtures of short-chain alcohol + 1,8-cineole (cyclic ether), or +di-n-propylether (lineal ether) is also included.

Neutron reflection and the thermodynamics of the air-water interface

By means of isotopic substitution, measurements of the neutron reflectivity (NR) from a flat water surface generally give model independent measurements of the amount of a chosen solute at the surface irrespective of whether the layer is a mixture or whether there is any aggregation in the bulk solution. Previously, adsorption at air-water interfaces has been determined by applying the Gibbs equation to surface tension (ST) measurements, which requires assumptions about the composition of the surface and about the activity of the solute in the bulk, which, in turn, means that in practice the surface is assumed to consist of the pure solute or of a mixture of pure solutes, and that the activity of the solute in the bulk solution is known. The use of NR in combination with ST-Gibbs measurements makes it possible to (i) avoid these assumptions and hence understand several patterns of ST behaviour previously considered to be anomalous and (ii) to start to analyse quantitatively the behaviour of mixed surfactants both below and above the critical micelle concentration. These two developments in our understanding of the thermodynamics of the air-water interface are described with recent examples.

Adsorption at the Air-Water Interface in Biosurfactant-Surfactant Mixtures: Quantitative Analysis of Adsorption in a Five-Component Mixture

The composition of the air-water adsorbed layer of a quinary mixture consisting of three conventional surfactants, octaethylene glycol monododecyl ether (C₁₂E₈), dodecane-6-p-sodium benzene sulfonate (LAS6), and diethylene glycol monododecyl ether sodium sulfate (SLE₂S), mixed with two biosurfactants, the rhamnolipids l-rhamnosyl-l-rhamnosyl-β-hydroxydecanoyl-β-hydroxydecanoyl, R2, and l-rhamnosyl-β-hydroxydecanoyl-β-hydroxydecanoyl, R1, has been measured over a range of compositions above the mixed critical micelle concentration. Additional measurements on some of the subsets of ternary and binary mixtures have also been measured by NR. The results have been analyzed using the pseudophase approximation (PPA) in conjunction with an excess free energy, G_E, that depends on the quadratic and cubic terms in the composition. The compositions of the binary, ternary, and quinary mixtures could all be fitted to two sets of interaction parameters between the pairs of surfactants, one for micelles and one for adsorption. No ternary interactions or ternary corrections were required. Because the system contains two strongly anionic surfactants, the PPA can be extended, in practice, to ionic surfactants, contrary to the prevailing view. The values of the interaction parameters show that the quinary mixture, SLE₂S-LAS6-C₁₂E₈-R1-R2, which is known to be a highly effective surfactant system, is characterized by a sequence of strong surface but weak micellar interactions. About half of the minima in G_E for the strong surface interactions occur well away from the regular solution value of 0.5.

Impact of Electrolyte on Adsorption at the Air-Water Interface for Ternary Surfactant Mixtures above the Critical Micelle Concentration

The composition of the air-water adsorbed layer of the ternary surfactant mixture, octaethylene monododecyl ether, C₁₂E₈, sodium dodecyl 6-benzenesulfonate, LAS, and sodium dioxyethylene glycol monododecyl sulfate, SLES, and of each of the binary mixtures, with varying amounts of electrolyte, has been studied by neutron reflectivity. The measurements were made above the mixed critical micelle concentration. In the absence of electrolyte adsorption is dominated by the nonionic component C₁₂E₈ but addition of electrolyte gradually changes this so that SLES and LAS dominate at higher electrolyte concentrations. The composition of the adsorbed layer in both binary and ternary mixtures can be quantitatively described using the pseudo-phase approximation with quadratic and cubic interactions in the excess free energy of mixing (G_E) at both the surface and in the micelles. A single set of parameters fits all the experimental data. A similar analysis is effective for a mixture in which SDS replaces SLES. Addition of electrolyte weakens the synergistic SLES-C₁₂E₈ and LAS-C₁₂E₈ interactions, consistent with them being dominated by electrostatic interactions. The SLES-LAS (and SDS-LAS) interaction is moderately strong at the surface and is little affected by addition of electrolyte, suggesting that it is controlled by structural or packing factors. Most of the significant interactions in the mixtures are unsymmetrical with respect to composition, with the minimum in G_E at the 1:2 or 2:1 composition. There is a small structural contribution to the LAS-C₁₂E₈ interaction that leads to a minimum intermediate in composition between 1:2 and 1:1 (LAS:C₁₂E₈) and to a significant residual G_E in strong electrolyte.

A New Technique for Studying Vapour–liquid Equilibria of Multi-Component Systems

A Fourier transform infrared gas-phase method is described herein and capable of deriving the vapour pressure of each pure component of a poorly volatile mixture and determining the relative vapour phase composition for each system. The performance of the present method has been validated using two standards (naphthalene and ferrocene), and a Raoult’s plot surface of a ternary system is reported as proof-of-principle. This technique is ideal for studying solutions comprising two, three, or more organic compounds dissolved in ionic liquids as they have no measurable vapour pressures.

Unusual excess free energies of mixing in mixtures of partially fluorinated and hydrocarbon surfactants at the air-water interface: correlation with the structure of the layer

The air-water interface of three mixtures of partially fluorinated surfactants and hydrocarbon surfactants, C4F9C11H22N(CH3)3Br (fC4hC11TAB) with hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (C16TAB), (CF3)2C3F6C10H20N(CH3)3Br (fC5hC10TAB) with C16TAB, and C8F17C6H12N(CH3)3Br (fC8hC6TAB) with C18TAB, have been investigated using surface tension (ST) and neutron reflection (NR). Using the composition of the layer determined by NR, the pseudophase separation model was used to fit the variation of concentration for a specific ST to a free energy of mixing, G(E), that included adjustable quadratic, cubic and quartic terms. In all three cases, G(E) was found to be highly unsymmetrical, being approximately ideal at low surface fractions of hydrocarbon surfactant and repulsive at high fractions with a maximum value of 0.2-0.3RT. The corresponding structure of the layer was also determined by NR and showed that the initial ideal behavior of G(E) probably results from a balance of a gain in energy from a reduced immersion of the fluorocarbon chain, brought about by screening of the fluorocarbon from water by the hydrocarbon surfactant, and a loss from increased fluorocarbon-hydrocarbon repulsion. At higher concentration, there is no space in the layer for further screening and the fluorocarbon-hydrocarbon repulsion leads to the expected positive G(E). The calculated G(E) also indicated that there should be phase separation of the two components in the interface over a bulk composition range of about 60-95% hydrocarbon surfactant. However, experiment indicates no phase separation. It is suggested that there are a number of possible additional negative contributions to G(E) close to a phase transition, which are not possible for a true bulk phase separation, and which prevent surface phase separation unless it is strongly favored.

Universal liquid mixture model for vapor-liquid and liquid-liquid equilibria in hexane-butanol-water system over the temperature range 10 - 100 °C

This is an extended research of the paper (Islam et al., 2011) conducted to obtain a universal set of interaction parameters of the model NRTL over the temperature range 10 - 100 °C for hexane-butanol-water system; meaning for binary pairs hexane-butanol, butanol-water and hexane-water; and for ternary system hexane-butanol-water. Thorough investigations of data selections for all binary pairs (Vapor-Liquid Equilibrium (VLE), Liquid-Liquid Equilibrium (LLE)), infinite dilution activity coefficient (γ∞), infinite dilution distribution coefficient (Dsw), excess enthalpy (HE), and for ternary system (LLE of hexane-butanol-water) were carried out. Finally quadratic temperature dependent interaction parameters were estimated regressing all the mentioned data and in each case calculated results were compared with literature values. The comparisons showed an overall percentage of error within 15% for the mentioned phase equilibrium calculations.

Isothermal vapour-liquid equilibria in cyclohexanone + dichloroalkane binary mixtures at temperatures from 298.15 to 318.15K

The vapour pressures of binary mixtures of cyclohexanone + dichloroalkane (1,3-dichloropropane and 1,4-dichlorobutane) were measured at temperatures between 298.15 K and 318.15 K. The vapour pressures vs. liquid phase composition data were used to calculate the activity coefficients of the two components and the excess molar Gibbs energies GE for the mixtures, using the Barker method and the Redlich-Kister, Wilson, NRTL and UNIQUAC equations, taking into account the vapour phase imperfection in terms of the 2nd virial coefficient. No significant difference between the GE values obtained with these equations was observed.

Liquid Mixtures of Xenon with Fluorinated Species: Xenon + Sulfur Hexafluoride

The vapor-liquid equilibrium of binary mixtures of xenon + SF6 has been measured at nine temperatures from 235.34 to 295.79 K and pressures up to 6.5 MPa. The mixture critical line is found to be continuous between the critical points of the pure components, and hence, the system can be classified as type I phase behavior in the scheme of van Konynenburg and Scott. The excess Gibbs free energies have been calculated, and the experimental results have been interpreted using the statistical associating fluid theory for potentials of variable range (SAFT-VR). Additionally, the SAFT-VR equation has been used to model other systems involving SF6 and alkanes, illustrating the predictability of the approach and further demonstrating the transferability of parameters between binary mixtures involving alkanes and xenon.