Experimental measurement and thermodynamic modelling of clathrate hydrate equilibria and salt solubility in aqueous ethylene glycol and electrolyte solutions

We present the extension of a recently developed method for modelling saline water to the thermodynamic prediction of phase behaviour for mixed salt–organic clathrate hydrate inhibitor aqueous solutions. Novel freezing point, boiling point and salt solubility data have been generated for NaCl–ethylene glycol (EG) and KCl–EG aqueous solutions. These data have been used in the optimisation of binary interaction parameters between salts and ethylene glycol. The extended thermodynamic model is capable of predicting complex vapour–liquid–solid (VLSE) equilibria for aqueous electrolytes and/or organic inhibitor solutions over a wide range of pressures, temperatures and inhibitor concentrations. Reliable hydrate dissociation data for two mixed salt–organic inhibitor quaternary systems (CH₄–H₂O–NaCl–EG and CH₄–H₂O–KCl–EG) have been measured at pressures up to 50 MPa. These data are used to validate the predictive capabilities of the model for hydrate equilibria. Good agreement between experimental data and predictions is observed, demonstrating the reliability of the developed model.     

Solvation equilibria in very concentrated electrolyte solutions

A stepwise hydration-equilibrium model for aqueous electrolytes is developed and shown to give a good quantitative account of osmotic coefficients of strong, highly soluble electrolytes up to concentrations of 20–30 m. The main parameters needed are two equilibrium constants describing the stepwise hydration and the number of hydration sites. Choice of ion-size parameter has only a minor effect.This paper was presented at the symposium, The Physical Chemistry of Aqueous Systems, held at the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, June 12–14, 1972, in honor of the 70th birthday of Professor H. S. Frank.Contribution from the Diffusion Research Unit, Research School of Physical Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, A.C.T., Australia and the University of New England, Armidale, N. S. W., Australia.     

A new approach to the structure of concentrated aqueous electrolyte solutions using pulsed NMR methods

It is shown that selective measurements of the magnetic dipole—dipole interactions between specific pairs of nuclear spins in glasses of concentrated aqueous electrolytes can provide detailed structural information of relevance to the liquid. The validity of the approach is demonstrated by selective measurements of the inter- and intra-molecular (H₂O) proton—proton interactions in LiCl and LiBr solutions at 100 K. For LiCl,4H₂O, these measurements are consistent with a short range (≈0.8 nm) distorted sodium chloride structure with Cl^? and Li(H₂O)⁺₄ as basic units: each Cl^? ion is octahedrally coordinated to six OH bonds. For LiCl,RH₂O solutions in the composition range 4 <R < 10, the excess H₂O is packed interstitially at the interfaces between clusters of LiCl,4H₂O. This structure is consistent with various properties of the solution at room temperature. LiBr solutions have similar structures.     

Specific interactions in mixed electrolyte solutions from solubility measurements

The solubility of thallium I chloride in a wide range of dilute electrolyte solutions is interpreted using a new specific-interaction equation for activity coefficients. This equation is shown to be consistent with the solubility data, but the Guggenheim specific-interaction equation is not. The relation of interaction coefficients to ion association is discussed.     

Clathrate hydrate equilibria in mixed monoethylene glycol and electrolyte aqueous solutions

Monoethylene glycol (MEG) is commonly added in the formulation of hydraulic and drilling fluids and injected into pipelines to prevent the formation of gas hydrates. It is therefore necessary to establish the effect of a combination of salts and thermodynamic inhibitors on gas hydrate equilibria.In this communication, water activity of five ternary solutions (MEG–H₂O–NaCl, MEG–H₂O–CaCl₂, MEG–H₂O–MgCl₂, MEG–H₂O–KCl and MEG–H₂O–NaBr) and four multicomponent solutions have been measured by a reliable resistive electrolytic humidity sensor. We also report new experimental measurements of the locus of incipient hydrate-liquid water–vapour curve for systems containing methane or natural gas with aqueous solution of ethylene glycol and NaCl over a wide range of concentrations, pressures and temperatures.A thermodynamic approach in which the Cubic-Plus-Association equation of state is combined with a modified Debye Hückel electrostatic term is employed to model the phase equilibria. These new data have been used to optimise binary interaction parameters between salts and MEG implemented in the modified Debye Hückel electrostatic term. The model developed has been evaluated using the new generated hydrate data and literature data. Good agreement between predictions of the modified model and experimental data is observed, supporting the reliability of the developed model.     

Cluster approach to ion association reactions in electrolyte solutions

Ionic chemical reactions in liquid solutions can be described by association processes between oppositely charged particles and treated by classical statistical mechanics. Previous attempts to derive explicit microscopic expressions for the cluster densities were not completely adequate. In this paper we fill this gap. The average evolution of cluster densities then yields the usual time-correlation function expression for the phenomenological rate constants. As an application we describe the case of pair formation reactions in an electrolyte solution.     

Phase equilibria of mixed carbon dioxide and tetrahydrofuran hydrates in sodium chloride aqueous solutions

In this work, the competing effects of sodium chloride (NaCl) and tetrahydrofuran (THF) on carbon dioxide hydrate formation are investigated through phase equilibrium measurements. The phase behaviour in the hydrate forming region for the binary system carbon dioxide–water, the ternary systems carbon dioxide–tetrahydrofuran–water and ternary carbon dioxide–sodium chloride–water and, in addition, the quaternary system carbon dioxide–tetrahydrofuran–water–sodium chloride are determined experimentally, using a Cailletet apparatus. All measurements are made in a temperature and pressure region of 275–290 K and 0.5–7.0 MPa, respectively. In these ranges, three different hydrate equilibrium curves are measured namely: H-L_W-V, H-L_W-L_V-V and H-L_W-L_V. The formation of an organic-rich liquid phase in the systems due to a liquid–liquid two-phase split between water and tetrahydrofuran when pressurized with carbon dioxide causes the occurrence of an upper quadruple point (Q₂) to evolve into a four-phase H-L_W-L_V-V equilibrium line. The presence of sodium chloride in the quaternary system enhances the split between the two liquids due to the salting-out effect. It was found that the hydrate promoting effect of tetrahydrofuran is able to suppress the inhibiting effect of sodium chloride especially at lower concentration of sodium chloride.     

Liquid-liquid phase equilibria in polymer solutions and polymer mixtures

The pressure dependence of liquid-liquid equilibria in weakly interacting binary macromolecular systems (homopolymer solutions and blends) will be discussed. The common origin of the separate high-temperature/low-temperature and high-pressure/low-pressure branches of demixing curves will be demonstrated by extending the study into the region of metastable liquid states including the undercooled, overheated and stretched states (i.e. states at negative pressures). The seemingly different response of the UCST-branch of solutions and blends when pressurized (pressure induced mixing for most polymer solutions, pressure induced demixing for most blends) will be explained in terms of the location of a hypercritical point found either at positive (most solutions) or negative pressure (most blends). Further, it is shown that the pressure dependence of demixing of homopolymer solutions and blends may be described using a ‘master-curve’ which, however, is sometimes partly masked by degradation or by vapour-liquid and/or solid-liquid phase transitions. Experimental results demonstrating the extension of liquid-liquid phase boundary curves into the metastable regions will be presented, and the existence of solubility islands in the vicinity of the hypercritical points discussed.     

Modification of Peng Robinson EOS for modelling (vapour + liquid) equilibria with electrolyte solutions

A modification of the extended Peng–Robinson equation of state (PR-EOS) is presented to describe the (vapour + liquid) equilibria of systems containing water and salts. The modification employs three additional terms including a Born term, a Margules term and two terms separately used for estimation of the long-range electrostatic interactions (the Debye–Huckel (DH) or the mean spherical approximation (MSA) terms). Effects of two mixing rules, first, the Panagiotopoulos and Reid mixing rule (PR) and, second, the Kwak and Mansoori mixing rule (KM), on the final values of VLE calculations are also investigated. The results show that the KM mixing rule is more appropriate than the PR mixing rule. The proposed equation of state is used to calculate the (vapour + liquid) equilibrium (VLE) of the systems containing (water + sodium sulphate + carbon dioxide) and (water + sodium chloride + carbon dioxide) at high pressure. The comparison of calculated results with the experimental data shows that a combination of KM mixing rule with the DH term results a more accurate VLE values.     

A method for calculating the acid–base equilibria in aqueous and nonaqueous electrolyte solutions

Russian Journal of Physical Chemistry A - Concentrations of particles in acid–base equilibria in aqueous and nonaqueous solutions of electrolytes are calculated on the basis of logarithmic...     

The solubility of argon in aqueous solutions of a complex-ion electrolyte

From measurements of the solubility of argon in aqueous solutions of the complexion electrolyte t-[Co(en)₂NCSCl]Br at 25°C, the Setschenow parameter for this system is found to be +0.33₆. Using the scaled-particle theory of the salt effect with this value ofk ₅ and the Waddington crystal radius of the Br^– ion, 1.98 Å, the radius of the complex cation is calculated to be 3.71 Å. This value is in reasonably good agreement with that estimated from scale models of the t-[Co(en)₂-NCSCl]⁺ cation, about 3.9 Å. It is somewhat larger than the radius calculated from various semiempirical equations relating the molal volume of an ion at infinite dilution to its radius; values of r obtained in this manner range from 3.32 to 3.66 Å.Abstracted, in part, from D.P.'s M.S. thesis, June 1971.     

A new approach to determine Pm in irradiated fuel solutions

Developments carried out in the Laboratory of Isotopic, Nuclear and Elementary Analyses in order to quantify ¹⁴⁷Pm in spent nuclear fuels analyzed at the CEA within the framework of the Burn Up Credit research program for neutronic code validation are presented here. This determination is essential for safety-criticality studies.The quantity and the nature of the radionuclides in irradiated fuel solutions force us to separate the elements of interest before measuring their isotopic content by mass spectrometry. The main objective of this study is to modify the separation protocol used in our laboratory in order to recover and to measure the ¹⁴⁷Pm at the same time as the other lanthanides and actinides determined by mass spectrometry.A very complete study on synthetic solution (containing or not ¹⁴⁷Pm) was undertaken in order to determine the yield of the various stages of separation carried out before obtaining the isolated Pm fraction from the whole of the elements present in the spent fuel solutions. With the lack of natural tracer to carry out the measurement with the isotope dilution technique, the great number of isotopes in fuel, the originality of this work rests on the use of another present lanthanide in fuel to define the output of separation. The yields were measured at the conclusion of each stage of separation with two others lanthanides in order to show that one of them could be used as a tracer to correct the measurement of the ¹⁴⁷Pm with the separation yield. The total yield (at the conclusion of the two stages of separation) was measured at the same time by ICP-MS and liquid scintillation. This last determination made it possible to validate the use of the ¹⁴⁷Sm (natural) to measure the ¹⁴⁷Pm in ICP-MS since the outputs determined in liquid scintillation and ICP-MS (starting from the radioactive decrease of the source having been used to make the synthetic solution) were equivalent. It is the first time that such measurement is performed in ICP-MS.The measurement of the ¹⁴⁷Pm was finally taken on fuels UOx and MOx by using the ¹⁵³Eu like a tracer of the separation yield. The results obtained are in very good agreement with those obtained from neutronic calculation code.     

Observations of magic numbers in gas phase hydrates of alkylammonium ions

Hydration of alkylammonium ions under nonanalytical electrospray ionization conditions has been found to yield cluster ions with more than 20 water molecules associated with the central ion. These cluster ion species are taken to be an approximation of the conditions in liquid water. Many of the alkylammonium cation mass spectra exhibit water cluster numbers that appear to be particularly favorable, i.e., “magic number clusters” (MNC). We have found MNC in hydrates of mono- and tetra-alkyl ammonium ions, NH₃(C _m H_2m+1)⁺(H₂O) _n , m=1–8 and N(C _m H_2m+1) ₄ ⁺ (H₂O) _n , m=2–8. In contrast, NH₂(CH₃) ₂ ⁺ (H₂O) _n , NH(CH₃) ₃ ⁺ (H₂O) _n1 and N(CH₃) ₄ ⁺ (H₂O) _n do not exhibit any MNC. We conjecture that the structures of these magic number clusters correspond to exohedral structures in which the ion is situated on the surface of the water cage in contrast to the widely accepted caged ion structures of H₃O⁺(H₂O) _n and NH ₄ ⁺ (H₂O) _n .     

Experimental measurement and thermodynamic modelling of phase equilibria of semi-clathrate hydrates of (CO2 + tetra-n-butyl-ammonium bromide) aqueous solution

Comprehensive studies on semi-clathrate hydrates phase equilibria are still required to better understand characteristics of this type of clathrates. In this communication, new experimental data on the dissociation conditions of semi-clathrate hydrates of {carbon dioxide + tetra-n-butyl-ammonium bromide (TBAB)} aqueous solution are first reported in a wide range of TBAB concentrations and at different pressures and temperatures. A thermodynamic model is then proposed to predict the dissociation conditions of the semi-clathrate hydrates for the latter system. The (hydrate + TBAB) aqueous solution (H + L_w) phase equilibrium prediction is considered based on Gibbs free energy minimization approach. A modified van der Waals–Platteeuw solid solution theory developed based on the (H + L_w) equilibrium information is employed to predict the dissociation conditions of semi-clathrate hydrates of carbon dioxide + TBAB. The properties of the aqueous solution are estimated using the AMSA-NRTL electrolyte model (considering the association and hydration of ions). The Peng–Robinson equation of state is used for estimating the gas/vapour phase properties. Results show that the proposed model satisfactorily predicts the experimental values with an average absolute relative deviation of approximately 13%.     

A pitzer mixed electrolyte solution theory approach to assignment of pH to standard buffer solutions

The IUPAC recommendations for the pH scale for aqueous solutions are based on the Bates-Guggenheim (B-G) convention (1961) for the single ion activity coefficient of the chloride ion in the standard buffer(s). This convention was adopted as a reasonable estimate based on the Debye-Huckel theory and is limited in its application to ionic strengths less than 0.1 mol-kg^–1. This approach ignores the results of many workers over the years on the properties of mixed electrolyte solutions and their prediction on the basis of the theories of Harned, Scatchard, Guggenheim and more recently of Pitzer. The literature data of EMF measurements on appropriate weak acid systems have been reexamined to determine both the pK_a values and values of appropriate Pitzer interaction coefficients. The latter are used to calculate single chloride ion activity coefficients for the chosen compositions of pH standard buffers, and compared with the B-G convention values. Calculations were made to check the consistency of the pH values with determined pK_a values using the Pitzer treatment for all the required single ion activity coefficients. The overall aim was to remove the ionic strength restriction of the B-G convention and rationalize the approach to pH standardization for such diverse aqueous media as sea water, blood and acid-rain water.An account of this work was presented at the 12^th International Conference on Chemical Thermodynamics, Snowbird, Utah, August 1992.     

A global investigation of phase equilibria using the perturbed-chain statistical-associating-fluid-theory approach

The recently developed perturbed-chain statistical-associating-fluid theory (PC-SAFT) is investigated for a wide range of model parameters including the parameter m representing the chain length and the thermodynamic temperature T and pressure p. This approach is based upon the first-order thermodynamic perturbation theory for chain molecules developed by Wertheim [M. S. Wertheim, J. Stat. Phys. 35, 19 (1984); ibid. 42, 459 (1986)] and Chapman et al. [G. Jackson, W. G. Chapman, and K. E. Gubbins, Mol. Phys. 65, 1 (1988); W. G. Chapman, G. Jackson, and K. E. Gubbins, ibid. 65, 1057 (1988)] and includes dispersion interactions via the second-order perturbation theory of Barker and Henderson [J. A. Barker and D. Henderson, J. Chem. Phys. 47, 4714 (1967)]. We systematically study a hierarchy of models which are based on the PC-SAFT approach using analytical model calculations and Monte Carlo simulations. For one-component systems we find that the analytical model in contrast with the simulation results exhibits two phase-separation regions in addition to the common gas-liquid coexistence region: One phase separation occurs at high density and low temperature. The second demixing takes place at low density and high temperature where usually the ideal-gas phase is expected in the phase diagram. These phenomena, which are referred to as "liquid-liquid" and "gas-gas" equilibria, give rise to multiple critical points in one-component systems, as well as to critical end points and equilibria of three fluid phases, which can usually be found in multicomponent mixtures only. Furthermore, it is shown that the liquid-liquid demixing in this model is not a consequence of a "softened" repulsive interaction as assumed in the theoretical derivation of the model. Experimental data for the melt density of polybutadiene with molecular mass Mw=45,000 gmol are correlated here using the PC-SAFT equation. It is shown that the discrepancies in modeling the polymer density at ambient temperature and high pressure can be traced back to the liquid-liquid phase separation predicted by the equation of state at low temperatures. This investigation provides a basis for understanding possible inaccuracies or even unexpected phase behavior which can occur in engineering applications of the PC-SAFT model aiming at predicting properties of macromolecular substances.     

A new approach to the gas phase chemistry of ternary transition metal complexes: Ion-beam induced reactions

High Energy Cs⁺-ion bombardment of glycerol containing a suitable transition metal chloride, an amino acid (A.A.) and 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) induces the formation of singly charged ternary complexes of the type [Cat(A.A. - H) (phen)]⁺, where Cat = Cr, Mn, Fe, Co or Ni. The investigation of the complexes is performed by MS/MS experiments using a four-sector instrument. Metastable decompositions of iron containing ternary complexes [Fe(A.A. - H) (phen)]⁺ provide abundant fragment ions indicating the coordination of functionalized amino acid side chains. Fragmentation mechanisms and ion structures are discussed.