Abstract
In this work, liquid-liquid and solid-liquid equilibria (LLE and SLE, respectively), at atmospheric pressure, of the solutions of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) with several organic solvents were studied. The studied solvents include benzene, toluene, o-xylene, p-xylene, tetrahydrofuran (THF), pyridine, nicotine, aniline, 1-hexanol, 1-octanol and 1-decanol. Previous and present solubility tests showed that pyridine, nicotine, THF and aniline are completely soluble in liquid PEG200 and PEG400. This study confirmed and extended the previous discoveries that PEG can adjust its polarity and may be soluble with both polar and non-polar compounds as well as that the addition of a methyl group dramatically reduces the solubility of PEG with arenes. These remarkable features were thoroughly reviewed and discussed. Further on, they were used to explain the new results brought by this work - LLE of the solutions of (liquid) PEG200/or PEG400 with xylene isomers and SLE of the solutions of (solid) PEG2050 with all the aforementioned compounds. Molar excess volumes (V E) of the solutions (PEG200/or PEG400+benzene/or toluene) were measured at 298.15K - these results were used to additionally discuss and explain the LLE behavior of these solutions. Finally, the results of this study showed the possibilities for sustainable applications (i) of liquid PEG200/or PEG400 for the separation of of o-xylene from p-xylene and (ii) of (solid) PEG2050 for benzene, toluene, pyridine and aniline treatment.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 74-84 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Fluid Phase Equilibria |
| Volume | 316 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 25 Feb 2012 |
Funding
The Serbian authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support received from the Research Fund of Ministry of Science and Environmental Protection, Serbia and the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, University of Belgrade (project No. 172063 ). From the Portuguese side, this work was financially supported by Fundacão para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, (FC&T), Portugal , through the project PTDC/EQU-EPR/103505/2008 . Gorica R. Ivaniš is a Research Assistant at the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, University of Belgrade, where she got her B.Sc. in 2009 and M.Sc. in 2010. Her professional interests are experimental determination and modelling of liquid–liquid equilibria and thermodynamic and transfer properties of chemical substances. Jelena M. Vuksanović is a Research Assistant at the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, University of Belgrade, where she got her B.Sc. in 2009 and M.Sc. in 2010. Her professional interests are experimental determination and modelling of solid–liquid equilibria and thermodynamic and transfer properties of chemical substances. Marta Santos Calado has a degree in Chemical and Biological Engineering, obtained at Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa (ISEL) in 2007 and a Master degree in Chemical Engineering at the same Institution in 2010. Since June 2011, she works as a researcher at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), Centro de Química Estrutural (CQE), Technical University of Lisbon, at the Statistical Mechanics and Experimental Thermodynamics group. Mirjana Kijevcanin is an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, University of Belgrade, where she received her PhD degree in 2002. She is an author of 2 textbooks, about 40 papers in international scientific journals and over 15 industrial projects. Her main professional interests include vapour–liquid and liquid–liquid equilibria, thermodynamics of solutions, process and equipment design, as well as heat and power integration in chemical and petrochemical industry. Slobodan P. Serbanovic is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, University of Belgrade. He obtained his PhD degree at the same Faculty in 1981. He is an author of 10 textbooks, about 80 papers in international scientific journals and coordinator of over 30 industrial projects. Main research focus is on vapour–liquid and liquid–liquid equilibria, thermodynamics of solutions, as well as process and equipment design in petrochemical and oil industry. He is a Serbian delegate in the Working Party on Thermodynamics and Transport Properties of the European Federation of Chemical Engineering. Zoran P. Visak got his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering in 1988 and 1994, respectively, both at the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, University of Belgrade, Serbia. At this institution he was a teaching assistant in the period 1989–2000. In 2004 Zoran P. Visak got a PhD degree at Instituto de Tecnología Química e Biológica, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal. He continued his scientific career in Portugal and currently is an Auxiliary Researcher at Centro Química Estrutural, Instituto Superior Técnico, Technical University of Lisbon. His main research interest is phase equilibria of “green” solutions and their thermophysical properties.
Keywords
- Liquid-liquid equilibrium
- Molar excess volumes
- Poly(ethylene glycol)
- Solid-liquid equilibrium
- Sustainable solvents