Non-ideality in Born-free energy of solvation in alcohol-water and dimethylsulfoxide-acetonitrile mixtures: Solvent size ratio and ion size dependence

Recent extension of mean spherical approximation (MSA) for electrolyte solution has been employed to investigate the non-ideality in Born-free energy of solvation of a rigid, mono-positive ion in binary dipolar mixtures of associating (ethanol-water) and non-associating (dimethylsulfoxide-acetonitrile) solvents. In addition to the dipole moments, the solvent size ratio and ion size have been treated in a consistent manner in this extended MSA theory for the first time. The solvent-solvent size ratio is found to play an important role in determining the non-ideality in these binary mixtures. Smaller ions such as Li⁺ and Na⁺ show stronger non-ideality in such mixtures compared to bigger ions (for example, Cs⁺ and Bu₄N⁺). The partial solvent polarization densities around smaller ions in tertiary butanol (TBA)-water mixture is found to be very different from that in other alcohol-water mixtures as well as to that for larger ions in aqueous solutions of TBA. Non-ideality is weaker in mixtures consisting of solvent species possessing nearly equal diameters and dipole moments and is reflected in the mole fraction dependent partial solvent polarization densities.