Estimation of solubility and interaction parameters in binary liquid mixtures by reversed-flow gas chroamtography

Summary A new method, called reversed-flow gas chromatography, is presented for the measurement of the gaseous equilibrium concentrations of all the components under study, both in the pure state and in binary liquid mixtures. From the equilibrium concentrations, activities, activity coefficients and volume fraction activity coefficients were determined. Using various empirical equations relating activity with the molecular interactions between the components of a binary liquid mixture, the solubility parameters of ethanol, 1-propanol, acetone and methylethylketone in water were calculated. The total interaction parameters and the partial contributions of the dispersion, orientation and residue forces on the van der Waals attraction between the organic compounds and water were also computed. The variation of the interaction parameters with the composition of organic component in the binary mixture was investigated. The successful application of reversed-flow gas chromatography to the estimation of polymer solubility parameters is also reported. Finally, the solubility parameters found by the present method are compared with those determined by other techniques or calculated theoretically.