Mixtures, phase behavior

Figure 9.23 Two paths by which we can use systematic replacements of one component to move among classes of binary mixtures, thereby changing phase behavior. Mixtures of methane and n-hexane exhibit LLE with a UCST and are in class E mixtures of methane and 1-hexene are also in class E, but they exhibit both a UCST and an LCST, as shown in Figure 9.14.

Basic Thermodynamics. Equilibrium-phase behavior of mixtures is governed by the free energy of mixing and how this quantity, consisting of enthalpic... 

Ternary Blends. Discussion of polymer blends is typically limited to those containing only two different components. Of course, inclusion of additional components may be useful in formulating commercial products. The recent Hterature describes the theoretical treatment and experimental studies of the phase behavior of ternary blends (10,21). The most commonly studied ternary mixtures are those where two of the binary pairs are miscible, but the third pair is not. There are limited regions where such ternary mixtures exhibit one phase. A few cases have been examined where all three binary pairs are miscible however, theoretically this does not always ensure homogeneous ternary mixtures (10,21). 

Fig. 5. Phase behavior of blends of a styrene—acrylonitrile copolymer containing 19 wt % of acrylonitrile with other SAN copolymers of varying AN content and as a function of the molecular weight of the two copolymers (° ) one-phase mixture ( ) two-phase mixtures as judged by optical clarity. Curve...

Eor nonideal vapor-phase behavior, the fugacity coefficient for component i in the mixture must be determined ... 

Perhaps the most significant of the partial molar properties, because of its appHcation to equiHbrium thermodynamics, is the chemical potential, ]1. This fundamental property, and related properties such as fugacity and activity, are essential to mathematical solutions of phase equihbrium problems. The natural logarithm of the Hquid-phase activity coefficient, Iny, is also defined as a partial molar quantity. For Hquid mixtures, the activity coefficient, y, describes nonideal Hquid-phase behavior. 

Extractive distillation and. salt distillation. Methods that primarily modify liquid-phase behavior to alter the relative volatility of the components of the mixture. 

Exploitation of Homogeneous Azeotropes Homogeneous azeotropic distillation refers to a flowsheet structure in which azeotrope formation is exploited or avoided in order to accomplish the desired separation in one or more distillation columns. The azeotropes in the system either do not exhibit two-hquid-phase behavior or the hquid-phase behavior is not or cannot be exploited in the separation sequence. The structure of a particular sequence will depend on the geometry of the residue curve map or distillation region diagram for the feed mixture-entrainer system. Two approaches are possible ... 

M. Kahlweit, R. Strey, P. Firman, D. Haase, J. Jen, R. Schomacker. General patterns of the phase behavior of mixtures of H2O, nonpolar solvents, amphiphiles, and electrolytes. 1. Langmuir 4 499-511, 1988. 

Of course, LC is not often carried out with neat mobile-phase fluids. As we blend solvents we must pay attention to the phase behavior of the mixtures we produce. This adds complexity to the picture, but the same basic concepts still hold we need to define the region in the phase diagram where we have continuous behavior and only one fluid state. For a two-component mixture, the complete phase diagram requires three dimensions, as shown in Figure 7.2. This figure represents a Type I mixture, meaning the two components are miscible as liquids. There are numerous other mixture types (21), many with miscibility gaps between the components, but for our purposes the Type I mixture is Sufficient. 

A wide variety of physical properties are important in the evaluation of ionic liquids (ILs) for potential use in industrial processes. These include pure component properties such as density, isothermal compressibility, volume expansivity, viscosity, heat capacity, and thermal conductivity. However, a wide variety of mixture properties are also important, the most vital of these being the phase behavior of ionic liquids with other compounds. Knowledge of the phase behavior of ionic liquids with gases, liquids, and solids is necessary to assess the feasibility of their use for reactions, separations, and materials processing. Even from the limited data currently available, it is clear that the cation, the substituents on the cation, and the anion can be chosen to enhance or suppress the solubility of ionic liquids in other compounds and the solubility of other compounds in the ionic liquids. For instance, an increase in allcyl chain length decreases the mutual solubility with water, but some anions ([BFJ , for example) can increase mutual solubility with water (compared to [PFg] , for instance) [1-3]. While many mixture properties and many types of phase behavior are important, we focus here on the solubility of gases in room temperature IFs. 

A third motivation for studying gas solubilities in ILs is the potential to use compressed gases or supercritical fluids to separate species from an IL mixture. As an example, we have shown that it is possible to recover a wide variety of solutes from ILs by supercritical CO2 extraction [9]. An advantage of this technology is that the solutes can be removed quantitatively without any cross-contamination of the CO2 with the IL. Such separations should be possible with a wide variety of other compressed gases, such as C2LL6, C2LL4, and SF. Clearly, the phase behavior of the gas in question with the IL is important for this application. 

For helium, a = 2.56 A and e/k = 10.22°K, where k is Boltzmann s constant. For xenon, e/k = 221 °K and a = 4.10. Because of symmetry, the subscript 1 may refer to either helium or xenon from the assumption of corresponding-states behavior, v°2 should be independent of the component chosen for subscript 1. Equation (108) is an equation of state for the binary mixture, and from it the phase behavior can be calculated without further assumptions. 

Aughel and coworkers [63] studied the phase behavior of hydrocarbon-water mixtures in the presence of alkyl(aryl)polyoxyethylene carboxylates for enhanced oil recovery and found good salt tolerance with an alkyl ether carboxy-late (C13-C15) with 7 mol EO and a good microemulsion forming effect with the 3 EO type. 

From phase behavior studies of hydrocarbon-water mixtures in the presence of ether carboxylates it was concluded that C13-C15 ether carboxylic acids with 3 and 7 mol EO were more suitable than the nonylphenol ether carboxylates with 5.7 and 10 mol EO and the tridecyl ether carboxylic acids with 6.5 mol EO. However, with the use of cosolvents these types were also acceptable [191]. 

Mixtures of isomers, such as o-, m- and / -xylene mixtures, and adjacent members of homologous series, such as n-hexane-n-heptane and benzene-toluene mixtures, give close to ideal liquid-phase behavior. For this case, yt = 1, and Equation 4.28 simplifies to ... 

This paper reviews the experiences of the oil industry in regard to asphaltene flocculation and presents justifications and a descriptive account for the development of two different models for this phenomenon. In one of the models we consider the asphaltenes to be dissolved in the oil in a true liquid state and dwell upon statistical thermodynamic techniques of multicomponent mixtures to predict their phase behavior. In the other model we consider asphaltenes to exist in oil in a colloidal state, as minute suspended particles, and utilize colloidal science techniques to predict their phase behavior. Experimental work over the last 40 years suggests that asphaltenes possess a wide molecular weight distribution and they may exist in both colloidal and dissolved states in the crude oil. 

One major question of interest is how much asphaltene will flocculate out under certain conditions. Since the system under study consist generally of a mixture of oil, aromatics, resins, and asphaltenes it may be possible to consider each of the constituents of this system as a continuous or discrete mixture (depending on the number of its components) interacting with each other as pseudo-pure-components. The theory of continuous mixtures (24), and the statistical mechanical theory of monomer/polymer solutions, and the theory of colloidal aggregations and solutions are utilized in our laboratories to analyze and predict the phase behavior and other properties of this system. 

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