Phase behavior of diisobutyl adipate–carbon dioxide mixtures

Phase equilibrium data are reported for diisobutyl adipate (DiBA) in CO₂ at temperatures from 25 to 150 °C. This system exhibits a continuous mixture-critical curve with a maximum near 200 °C and 260 bar. The phase behavior of the DiBA–CO₂ system is well characterized and modeled with the Peng–Robinson equation of state using a single, fixed binary interaction parameter, k_ij. The DiBA–CO₂ data are compared to other solute–CO₂ systems with structures similar to DiBA to demonstrate the impact of the diester end groups in DiBA, which enhance DiBA solubility in CO₂ at low temperatures, relative to a single (ethyl laurate) or no ester end groups (tetradecane), and a single acid end group (tetradecanoic acid). DiBA–CO₂ data are also compared to data for two compounds each with diester groups but one containing an interior aromatic group (dibutyl phthalate) and the other containing the same number of interior carbon groups but with two less carbon groups at either end of the chain (divinyl adipate).     

Phase behavior, rheological property, and transmutation of vesicles in fluorocarbon and hydrocarbon surfactant mixtures

We present a detailed study of a salt-free cationic/anionic (catanionic) surfactant system where a strongly alkaline cationic surfactant (tetradecyltrimethylammonium hydroxide, TTAOH) was mixed with a single-chain fluorocarbon acid (nonadecafluorodecanoic acid, NFDA) and a hyperbranched hydrocarbon acid [di-(2-ethylhexyl)phosphoric acid, DEHPA] in water. Typically the concentration of TTAOH is fixed while the total concentration and mixing molar ratio of NFDA and DEHPA is varied. In the absence of DEHPA and at a TTAOH concentration of 80 mmol·L(-1), an isotropic L(1) phase, an L(1)/L(α) two-phase region, and a single L(α) phase were observed successively with increasing mixing molar ratio of NFDA to TTAOH (n(NFDA)/n(TTAOH)). In the NFDA-rich region (n(NFDA)/n(TTAOH) > 1), a small amount of excess NFDA can be solubilized into the L(α) phase while a large excess of NFDA eventually leads to phase separation. When NFDA is replaced gradually by DEHPA, the mixed system of TTAOH/NFDA/DEHPA/H(2)O follows the same phase sequence as that of the TTAOH/NFDA/H(2)O system and the phase boundaries remain almost unchanged. However, the viscoelasticity of the samples in the single L(α) phase region becomes higher at the same total surfactant concentration as characterized by rheological measurements. Cryo-transmission electron microscopic (cryo-TEM) observations revealed a microstructural evolution from unilamellar vesicles to multilamellar ones and finally to gaint onions. The size of the vesicle and number of lamella can be controlled by adjusting the molar ratio of NFDA to DEHPA. The dynamic properties of the vesicular solutions have also been investigated. It is found that the yield stress and the storage modulus are time-dependent after a static mixing process between the two different types of vesicle solutions, indicating the occurrence of a dynamic fusion between the two types of vesicles. The microenvironmental changes induced by aggregate transitions were probed by (19)F NMR as well as (31)P NMR measurements. Upon replacement of NFDA by DEHPA, the signal from the (19)F atoms adjacent to the hydrophilic headgroup disappears and that from the (19)F atoms on the main chain becomes sharper. This could be interpreted as an increase of microfluidity in the mixed vesicle bilayers at higher content of DEHPA, whose alkyl chains are expected to have a lower chain melting point. Our results provide basic knowledge on vesicle formation and their structural evolution in salt-free catanionic surfactant systems containing mixed ion pairs, which may contribute to a deeper understanding of the rules governing the formation and properties of surfactant self-assembly.     

Phase behavior of {carbon dioxide + [bmim][Ac]} mixtures

Carbon dioxide solubility {(vapor + liquid) equilibria: VLE} in ionic liquid, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate ([bmim][Ac]), has been measured with a gravimetric microbalance at four isotherms about (283, 298, 323, and 348) K up to about 2 MPa. (Vapor + liquid + liquid) equilibria (VLLE: or liquid–liquid separations) have also been investigated with a volumetric method used in our previous works, since the present analysis of the VLE data using our equation-of-state model has predicted the VLLE at CO₂-rich side solutions. The prediction for the VLLE has been confirmed experimentally. CO₂ solubilities at the ionic liquid-rich side show extremely unusual behaviors; CO₂ dissolves in the ionic liquid to a great degree, but there is hardly any vapor pressure above these mixtures up to about 20 mol% of CO₂. It indicates that CO₂ may have formed a non-volatile or very low vapor pressure molecular complex with the ionic liquid. The thermodynamic excess properties (enthalpy, entropy, and Gibbs free energy) of the present system do support such a complex formation. We have conducted several other experiments to investigate the complex formation (or chemical reactions), and conclude that a minor chemical reaction occurs but the complex formation is reversible without much degradation of the ionic liquid.     

Phase behavior and rheological properties of DNA-cationic polysaccharide mixtures

Associative aqueous mixtures over a range of concentrations of double- (ds) or single- (ss) stranded DNA with dilute or semidilute solutions of two cationic derivatives of hydroxyethyl cellulose (cat-HEC and cat-HMHEC,(1) the latter carrying grafted hydrophobic groups), were studied. The phase behavior showed an interesting asymmetry: Phase separation occurred immediately when small (sub-stoichiometric) amounts of cationic polyelectrolyte were added to the DNA solution, but redissolution into a single cat-(HM)HEC/DNA/H(2)O phase occurred already with a modest charge excess of the cationic polyelectrolyte, at a charge ratio approximately independent of the overall polyelectrolyte concentration. Cat-HEC/dsDNA/H(2)O and cat-HEC/ssDNA/H(2)O systems presented a considerable difference in the extension of the phase separation region. The one-phase samples with excess cationic polyelectrolyte were studied by rheology. The presence of DNA strengthened the viscoelastic behavior of the solutions of the cationic polyelectrolytes, reflected in an increase in storage modulus and viscosity. Differences in phase behavior and rheology were observed, particularly between systems containing cat-HEC or cat-HMHEC, but also between dsDNA and ssDNA. Thus, these systems allow for the preparation of DNA formulations with widely variable rheology and water uptake.     

Phase behavior of polymer mixtures with nonadditive hard-sphere potential

The phase behavior of a binary mixture of homopolymers in which macromolecules are composed of tangent hard spheres was studied. The interaction of unlike units is characterized by the contact distance (1/2)(σ_A + σ_B)(1 + Δ), where σ _i is the diameter of the ith sphere (unit) and Δ is the nonadditivity parameter. The effect of nonadditivity was taken into account by means of the perturbation theory relative to the additive system (Δ = 0) considered earlier (Polymer Science, 47, 2146 (2005)) in terms of the Percus-Yevick approximation. The theoretical consideration presented is completely analytical. It was found that a polymer mixture experiences phase separation with an increase in pressure; the two-phase region extends with an increase in both the size ratio between the units α = σ_A/σ_B and the length of the chain per se. Closed phase diagrams were first predicted for athermal mixtures; such diagrams appear at Δ < 0 and certain values of α. It was shown that the thermodynamics of an incompressible mixture of hard-chain molecules at α = 1 follows the Flory-Huggins theory with the temperature-independent interaction parameter. Phase separation in polymer solutions with the nonadditive hard-sphere potential was also analyzed.     

Phase behavior of binary mixtures of water,carbon dioxide and decane predicted with a lattice-gas model

The Kleintjens—Koningsveld lattice-gas model is used to predict the phase behavior of pure CO₂, water and decane, and of binary mixtures of CO₂ with water and decane. The model, with parameters fitted to experimental data, predicts very accurate vapor pressures and liquid—vapor coexistence densities for the pure fluids. For the binary mixtures, the model correctly predicts the qualitative patterns of phase behavior using two temperature-dependent mixture parameters fitted to simple polynomials over a small range of temperature. For quantitative predictions over wide temperature ranges, however, the temperature dependence of the mixture parameters must be fitted carefully over the same ranges of temperatures. The performance of the Kleintjens—Koningsveld model is compared to that of the Peng—Robinson model.     

Phase behavior in thin films of confined colloid-polymer mixtures

Using self-consistent-field and density-functional theories, we first investigate colloidal self-assembly of colloid-polymer films confined between two soft surfaces grafted by polymers. With increasing colloidal concentrations, the film undergoes a series of transitions from disordered liquid --> sparse square --> hexagonal (or mixed square-hexagonal) --> dense square --> cylindrical structures in a plane, which results from the competition between the entropic elasticity of polymer brushes and the steric packing effect of colloidal particles. A phase diagram displays the stable regions of different in-layer ordering structures as the colloidal concentration is varied and layering transitions as the polymer-grafted density is decreased. Our results show a new control mechanism to stabilize the ordering of structures within the films.     

Phase behavior of undecane-tetradecane mixtures confined in SBA-15

Phase behavior of undecane-tetradecane (n-C11H24-C14H30, C11-C14) mixtures in bulk and confined in SBA-15 have been studied using differential scanning calorimetry. The bulk C11-C14 system shows multiple phase regions due to rotator phase. Confined in the pores of SBA-15 (pore diameters 3.8-7.8 nm), the mixtures only show a melting boundary of a straight line and a curve, respectively. In SBA-15 (17.2 nm), phase behavior of themixtures has some similarity to that of the bulk. Under confinement, the phase diagrams of the mixtures vary with the pore size, temperature, and compositions.     

Phase behavior of polylactides in solvent–nonsolvent mixtures

Isothermal phase diagrams for the semicrystalline poly-L-lactide (PLLA) and the amorphous poly-DL-lactide (PDLLA) in combination with several solvent–nonsolvent combinations (dioxane/water, dioxane/methanol, chloroform/methanol, and NMP/water) have been determined. The locations of the liquid–liquid miscibility gap, the solid–liquid miscibility gap and the vitrification boundary in the isothermal phase diagrams at 25°C were identified. The liquid–liquid miscibility gap for the systems with PLLA was located in the same composition range as the corresponding systems with PDLLA. For the systems containing PLLA solid–liquid demixing was thermodynamically preferred over liquid–liquid demixing. Attempts were made to correlate the experimental findings with predictions on the basis of the Flory-Huggins theory for ternary solutions using interaction parameters derived from independent experiments. Qualitative agreement was found between the theoretical predictions and the experimentally obtained liquid–liquid miscibility gap. No good agreement was found for the solid–liquid miscibility gap. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Phase behavior and interfacial properties of nonadditive mixtures of Onsager rods

Within a second virial theory, we study bulk phase diagrams as well as the free planar isotropic-nematic interface of binary mixtures of nonadditive thin and thick hard rods. For species of the same type, the excluded volume is determined only by the dimensions of the particles, whereas for dissimilar ones it is taken to be larger or smaller than that, giving rise to a nonadditivity that can be positive or negative. We argue that such a nonadditivity can result from modeling of soft interactions as effective hard-core interactions. The nonadditivity enhances or reduces the fractionation at isotropic-nematic (IN) coexistence and may induce or suppress a demixing of the high-density nematic phase into two nematic phases of different composition (N(1) and N(2)), depending on whether the nonadditivity is positive or negative. The interfacial tension between coexisting isotropic and nematic phases shows an increase with increasing fractionation at the IN interface, and complete wetting of the IN(2) interface by the N(1) phase upon approach of the triple-point coexistence. In all explored cases bulk and interfacial properties of the nonadditive mixtures exhibit a striking and quite unexpected similarity with the properties of additive mixtures of different diameter ratio.     

Phase behavior and 3D structure of strongly attractive microsphere-nanoparticle mixtures

We investigate the phase behavior and 3D structure of strongly attractive mixtures of silica microspheres and polystyrene nanoparticles. These binary mixtures are electrostatically tuned to promote a repulsion between like-charged (microsphere-microsphere and nanoparticle-nanoparticle) species and a strong attraction between oppositely charged (microsphere-nanoparticle) species. Using confocal fluorescence scanning microscopy, we directly observe the 3D structure of colloidal phases assembled from these mixtures as a function of varying composition. In the absence of nanoparticle additions, the charged-stabilized microspheres assemble into a polycrystalline array upon sedimentation. With increasing nanoparticle volume fraction, nanoparticle bridges form between microspheres, inducing their flocculation. At even higher nanoparticle volume fractions, the microspheres become well coated with nanoparticles, leading to their charge reversal and subsequent restabilization. We demonstrate how this fluid-gel-fluid transition can be utilized to control the morphology of the colloidal phases formed under gravity-driven sedimentation.     

Phase and interfacial behavior of partially miscible symmetric Lennard-Jones binary mixtures

We have carried out extensive equilibrium molecular-dynamics simulations to study quantitatively the topology of the temperature versus density phase diagrams and related interfacial phenomena in a partially miscible symmetric Lennard-Jones binary mixture. The topological features are studied as a function of miscibility parameter, alpha = epsilonAB/epsilonAA. Here epsilonAA = epsilonBB and epsilonAB stand for the parameters related to the attractive part of the intermolecular interactions for similar and dissimilar particles, respectively. When the miscibility varies in the range 0 < alpha < 1, a continuous critical line of consolute points Tcons(rho)--critical demixing transition line--appears. This line intersects the liquid-vapor coexistence curve at different positions depending on the values of alpha, yielding mainly three different topologies for the phase diagrams. These results are in qualitative agreement to those found previously for square-well and hard-core Yukawa binary mixtures. The main contributions of the present paper are (i) a quantitative analysis of the phase behavior and (ii) a detailed study of the liquid-liquid interfacial and liquid-vapor surface tensions, as function of temperature and miscibility as well as its relationship to the topological features of the phase diagrams.     

Peng-Robinson equation of state for vapor-liquid equilibrium calculations for carbon dioxide + hydrocarbon mixtures

Lin, H.-M., 1984. Peng-Robinson equation of state for vapor-liquid equilibrium calculations for carbon dioxide + hydrocarbon mixtures. Fluid Phase Equilibria, 16: 151–169.Binary interaction parameters δ_ij in the Peng-Robinson equation of state have been determined from vapor-liquid equilibrium data for binary mixtures of carbon dioxide with a variety of hydrocarbons. A constant value of δ_ij ? 0.125 appears to represent the experimental data well in most cases. Comments are made on the recent work of Kato, Nagahama and Hirata, who correlated δ_ij as a function of temperature for CO₂ + n-paraffin binary mixtures.     

Prediction of viscosities of hydrocarbon mixtures

A new model for prediction of the viscosities of hydrocarbons including oil and gas mixtures is presented. The model is based on the principle of corresponding states with methane and decane as reference components. The viscosity of a given component or mixture is determined from the reduced viscosities of the reference components using the molecular weight as an interpolation parameter.

The model has been used for prediction of viscosities of both pure components and mixtures over large pressure ranges and for reduced temperatures above 0.476. The results are in good agreement with the experimental data. The new model compares favorably with earlier published methods, which use only one reference component.

Finally, the model has been tested on data for 6 oil mixtures from the North Sea. The mean deviation based on 34 experimental points was 6.4 %.     

Phase behavior and properties of reverse vesicles in salt-free catanionic surfactant mixtures

Salt-free 1:1 cationic/anionic (catanionic) surfactant mixture tetradecyltrimethylammonium laurate (TTAL) could be prepared by mixing equimolar tetradecyltrimethylammonium hydroxide (TTAOH) and lauric acid (LA) in water. Given the condition of suitable range of weight fraction of TTAL in total surfactant, rho=WTTAL/(WTTAL+WLA), and at existence of a small amount of water, it was found that the mixtures of so-obtained TTAL and LA could spontaneously form stable reverse vesicles in various organic solvents including toluene, tert-butylbenzene, and cyclohexane. The reverse vesicle phase shows a blue color against room light and exhibits strong birefringence under polarized microscope. The reverse vesicles are very sensitive to temperature change. Increasing temperature could make the rho values within which reverse vesicles were constructed move to higher values. In organic solvents of alkanes such as n-heptane, reverse vesicles could still form but become unstable upon time and centrifugation. Increasing temperature could accelerate phase separation, and finally a gel-like bottom phase was usually observed. Interestingly, the stable reverse vesicles formed by so-called salt-free catanionic surfactant mixtures still show some resistance against adding inorganic salts. They can trap inorganic ions such as Zn2+ and S2- into their hydrophilic layers. This opens the door for template applications of reverse vesicles to prepare inorganic nanoparticles.     

Phase behavior in mixtures of cationic and anionic surfactants in aqueous solutions

Phase behavior of cationic/anionic surfactant mixtures of the same chain length (n=10, 12 or 14) strongly depends on the molar ratio and actual concentration of the surfactants. Precipitation of catanionic surfactant and mixed micelles formation are observed over the concentration range investigated. Coacervate and liquid crystals are found to coexist in the transition region from crystalline catanionic surfactant to mixed micelles.The addition of oppositely charged surfactant diminishes the surface charge density at the mixed micelle/solution interface and enhances the apparent degree of counterion dissociation from mixed micelles. Cationic surfactants have a greater tendency to be incorporated in mixed micelles than anionic ones.     

Phase behavior of binary mixtures composed of ethylene carbonate and various organic solvents

Phase behaviors of the binary mixtures composed of ethylene carbonate (EC) and aliphatic alcohols, ω-phenyl alcohols, and alkylbenzenes were investigated. In addition, heat of solution of EC into these organic solvents was measured. The EC/methanol and EC/ethanol systems gave homogeneous solution at the temperature above their liquidus lines, while the mixtures of EC and alcohols with longer alkyl chain showed a miscibility gap in a liquid phase and provided the monotectic-type phase diagram. The liquid–liquid phase separation region expanded with the increase in the alkyl chain length. A similar phase behavior was also observed for the mixtures of EC and alkylbenzenes. On the other hand, the EC mixtures with ω-phenyl alcohols showed no miscibility gap in a liquid phase at least up to 4-phenylbutan-1-ol which has C4 alkyl chain intervening between phenyl and hydroxyl groups. This result demonstrates that both of the hydroxyl and phenyl groups act to facilitate the mixing of aliphatic compounds with EC. The phase behavior of these EC mixtures was analyzed applying the modified regular solution model in which the pair interaction energy was regarded as free energy. The model calculation with the use of heat of solution of EC at infinite dilution as the pair interaction enthalpy reproduced well both of the experimentally obtained liquidus line and mutual solubility curve as well as monotectic point.     

Phase behavior of Ar and Kr films on carbon nanotubes

Recent experiments (Wang et al., 2010) have found evidence of phase transitions of gases adsorbed on a single carbon nanotube. In order to understand the observations, we have carried out classical grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations of this system, for the cases of Ar and Kr on zigzag and armchair nanotubes with radius R > 0.7 nm. The calculated behavior resembles the experimental results in the case of Ar. However, the prominent, ordered phase found for Kr in both simulations and (classical) energy minimization calculations differs from that deduced from the experimental data. A tentative explanation of the apparent discrepancy is that the experiments involve a nanotube of rather large radius (>1.5 nm).     

Surface and bulk behavior of (dialkylsulfoxides + carbon tetrachloride) mixtures

Surface tensions, surface tension deviations, densities, and excess molar volumes of binary mixtures of carbon tetrachloride (CCl₄) with dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), diethylsulfoxide (DESO), dipropylsulfoxide (DPSO), and dibutylsulfoxide (DBSO) have been determined over the entire composition range at (298.15 and 313.15) K. The results were fitted by the Redlich–Kister polynomial equation and the corresponding binary coefficients have been derived.The obtained excess quantities show that both charge-transfer complex formation between CCl₄ and dialkylsulfoxides (DASO) molecules and on the other hand sulfoxides’ chain length are crucial factors conditioning the excess thermodynamic properties of (CCl₄ + DASO) binary mixtures.     

Liquid-liquid-vapor phase equilibria behavior of certain binary carbon dioxide + n-alkylbenzene mixtures

The liquid-liquid-vapor loci for the binary mixtures CO₂ + n-hexylbenzene, n-heptylbenzene, and n-octylbenzene were experimentally studied. The compositions and molar volumes of the liquid phases are reported along with the pressure and temperature. For these three alkylbenzenes, the nature of the liquid-liquid-vapor loci experiences a transition, with the CO₂ + n-heptylbenzene mixture exhibiting two separate liquid-liquid-vapor branches.