Affiliation: | Laboratoire de Thermodynamique Chimique et Appliquée, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Industries Chimiques, Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine, 1, rue Grandville, BP 451, F-54001, Nancy Cédex, France |
Abstract: | A structural study of odd-numbered n-alkane (Cn) binary mixtures (C21 : C23) was carried out on powder samples using a Guinier-de Wolff camera with increasing concentration of n-C23 at 293 K. Despite the reports in the literature, these molecular alloys do not form an orthorhombic continuous homogeneous solid solution to C21 from C23 at “low temperature”. Instead, as already observed in two even-numbered Cn systems, X-ray diffraction results show the existence of seven solid solutions as the molar concentration of C23 increases: four terminal solid solutions, denoted β0(C21)β0(C23), isostructural with the “low temperature” phase of pure C21 and C23 (Pbcm), β′0(C21) and β′0(C23), identical to the phase β′0 which appears in pure C23 above the δ transition, and three orthorhombic intermediate solid solutions, designated β″1, β′1 and β″2. On the basis of powder X-ray photographs, the phases β″1 and β″2 (C21 : C23) are indistinguishable, and they are isostructural with the intermediate solid solution β″ of the even-numbered Cn binary systems (C22 : C24) and (C24 : C26). The phase β′1(C21 : C23) is also isostructural with the two indistinguishable intermediate solid solutions β′1 and β′2 of the molecular alloys (C22 : C24) and (24 : C26). From this study and our other laboratory results, the sequences of appearance of the solid solutions and the structural identities between these phases are established at “low temperature” for all the binary molecular alloys of consecutive Cn (odd-odd, even-even or odd-even: 19 < n < 27) when increasing the solute concentration. |