Measurements and Modeling of Thermophysical Behavior of (C1 − C4) Alkylbenzoate/ (C1 − C11) Alkan-1-ol Mixed Solvents

A Polarization-Consistent Model for Alcohols to Predict Solvation Free Energies

Classical nonpolarizable models, normally based on a combination of Lennard-Jones sites and point charges, are extensively used to model thermodynamic properties of fluids, including solvation. An important shortcoming of these models is that they do not explicitly account for polarization effects, i.e., a description of how the electron density responds to changes in the molecular environment. Instead, polarization is implicitly included, in a mean-field sense, into the parameters of the model, usually by fitting to pure liquid properties (e.g., density). This causes problems when trying to describe thermodynamic properties that involve a change of phase (e.g., enthalpy of vaporization), that directly depend on the electronic response of the medium (e.g., dielectric constant), and that require mixing or solvation in different media (e.g., solvation free energies). Fully polarizable models present a natural route for addressing these limitations but at the price of a much higher computational cost. In this work, we combine the best of those two approaches by running fast simulations using nonpolarizable models and applying post facto corrections to the computed properties in order to account for the effects of polarization. By applying this new paradigm, a new united-atom force field for alcohols is developed that is able to predict both pure liquid properties, including dielectric constant, and solvation free energies in different solvents with a high degree of accuracy. This paves the way for the development of a generic classical nonpolarizable force field that can predict solvation of drug-like molecules in a variety of solvents.

Disruption of the self-molecular association of pentanol in binary mixtures with alkylbenzoates: a dielectric relaxation spectroscopy study

A dielectric relaxation study of binary mixtures of associative pentanol isomers and non-associative alkylbenzoates at different mole fractions revealed that the effective dipole rotates faster in the alkylbenzoate rich region.

Microwave dielectric relaxation spectroscopy study of alkan-1-ol/alkylbenzoate binary solvents

The structure and dynamics of alkan-1-ol/alkylbenzoate binary mixtures have been studied by microwave dielectric relaxation spectroscopy in the 200 MHz to 20 GHz frequency range. The binary mixtures of methanol, ethanol, propan-1-ol, butan-1-ol, and pentan-1-ol with methyl, ethyl, propyl, and butyl benzoates were studied at 298.15 K. The relaxational response of the pure alcohols, pure esters, and their binary mixtures over the full composition range is properly described by the Havriliak-Negami model. The alcohol content, alcohol length, and alkyl side-chain effects on the relaxational properties have been studied for these mixtures over the whole composition range. From the experimental readings, the effective and the corrective Kirkwood and Bruggeman correlation factors have been calculated. The data gathered have been interpreted in terms of the alkyl side-chain effect and their reliance on the mixture composition.

Structure-composition relationships in ternary solvents containing methylbenzoate

Thermophysical properties of the hexane+1-chlorohexane (or hexanoic acid or diisopropylether)+methylbenzoate ternary systems and their binary constituents are reported at 298.15 K and 0.1 MPa over the whole composition range. The properties and the optimized geometry of the gas-phase components were appraised from the density functional theory. To find out the causal link between the thermophysical measurements and the molecular level features, the derived mixing and excess functions of the ternary systems were looked into according to the scaled particle and Kirkwood-Buff analyses. The hydrogen bonding and dipole interactions along with the geometry effects brought about by the very different size and shape of the components give rise to complex mixed structures. Application of semiempirical models and use of simple cubic equations of state combined with a one-parameter van der Waals mixing rule has led to prediction of the ternary properties with variable degree of precision.

Properties and Structure of Aromatic Ester Solvents

This paper reports on an experimental and theoretical study of the aromatic ester solvents family. Several compounds were selected to analyze the different factors that influence their liquid-state properties and structures. The pressure-volume-temperature behavior of these fluids was measured accurately over wide temperature and pressure ranges and correlated successfully with the empirical TRIDEN equation. From the measured data the relevant derived coefficients of isothermal compressibility, isobaric expansibility, and internal pressure were calculated. The statistical associating fluid theory (SAFT) and perturbed chain statistical associating fluid theory (PC-SAFT) molecularly based equations of state were used to predict the PVT behavior with model parameters obtained from the correlation of available saturation literature data; the results provided by PC-SAFT equations of state were clearly superior for all of the studied solvents. The fluid's molecular level structure was studied by quantum computations at the B3LYP/6-311++g** level and classical molecular dynamics simulations in the NPT ensemble with the OPLS-AA forcefield. Molecular parameters, such as torsional barriers or cluster energetics, were analyzed as a function of ester structures. The molecular dynamics study provides, on one hand, theoretical values of thermophysical properties, which are compared with the experimental ones, and, on the other hand, valuable molecular level structural information. On the basis of both macroscopic and microscopic studies complex fluid structures were inferred with important effects arising from the geometries of the studied molecules and from the existence of remarkable intermolecular forces of dominating dipolar nature.

Concentration fluctuations and collective properties in mixed liquid systems: Rayleigh-Brillouin spectra oftert-butyl alcohol/ 2,2′-dimethylbutane liquid mixture

Rayleigh-Brillouin spectra have been measured in a range of temperatures and compositions of t-butyl alcohol/2,2(')-dimethylbutane liquid mixture. The mixture mole fraction has been varied from pure alkane (x(TBA)=0) to pure alcohol (x(TBA)=1) at temperatures between 283 and 323 K. In the same composition and temperature ranges the authors also executed measurements of mass density, shear viscosity, and refractive index. From light scattering spectra the authors have extracted the hypersound velocities and adiabatic compressibilities and evaluated their excess values. Moreover, the authors attempted to evaluate the isothermal (40 degrees C) Landau-Placzek ratios at various mole fractions, but these values proved to be subject to significant errors due to great uncertainty in the central component intensity measurements. Thus, in discussing the results, this latter quantity was considered only from a qualitative point of view. These results highlight a nonideal behavior of the studied liquid mixture with a probable azeotropic composition around x(TBA)=0.7 due to formation of small clusters of hydrogen-bonded alcohol tetramers that are completely surrounded by solvent molecules and analogous or smaller clusters. These clusters, shaped as inverse micelles, offer their hydrophobic moiety towards the molecules that constitute the solvation shell, resulting in a low polarity solution structure that minimizes the solute-solvent interactions. Differences in thermal and compositional behavior of excess molar volumes and adiabatic compressibilities have been interpreted by attributing different weights to the solute-solvent interaction forces and to the hydrogen bond connectivity effects.

Structures of Alkyl Benzoate Binary Mixtures. A Kirkwood−Buff Fluctuation Theory Study Using UNIFAC

The structure of the alkyl benzoate + n-alkane, and + alkan-1-ol binary mixtures were analyzed according to the Kirkwood-Buff fluctuation theory on the basis of both the mixture properties measured over a wide temperature range and the activity coefficients calculated with the modified UNIFAC (Dortmund) model as well. Application of this model reveals that both the microheterogeneous structure and the clustering effects are strongly dependent on the chain length of the n-alkane and alkan-1-ol cosolvents. Knowledge of the local composition around each type of molecule is drawn from the Kirkwood-Buff integrals and the excess (or deficit) molecules aggregated around a central one. The rather high values of the integrals evaluated for some of these systems provide first-hand evidence for phase splitting. The conclusions drawn support previous analyses and confirm the adequacy of the methodology put forward for studying liquid mixtures at microscopic level; easily measurable experimental properties can advantageously be used with the fluctuation theory.