Interfacial tensions of binary mixtures of ethanol with octane, decane, dodecane, and tetradecane

This contribution is devoted to the experimental characterization of interfacial tensions of a representative group of binary mixtures pertaining to the (ethanol + linear hydrocarbon) series (i.e. octane, decane, dodecane, and tetradecane). Experimental measurements were isothermically performed using a maximum differential bubble pressure technique, which was applied over the whole mole fraction range and over the temperature range 298.15 K < T/K < 318.15 K. Experimental results show that the interfacial tensions of (ethanol + octane or decane) negatively deviate from the linear behavior and that sharp minimum points on concentration, or aneotropes, are observed for each isotherm. The interfacial tensions of (ethanol + dodecane or tetradecane), in turn, are characterized by combined deviations from the linear behavior, and inflecting behavior observed on concentration for each isotherm. The experimental evidence also shows that these latter mixtures are close to exhibit aneotropy. For the case of (ethanol + octane or decane) mixtures, aneotropy was clearly induced by the similarity of the interfacial tension values of the constituents. The inflecting behavior of the interfacial tensions of (ethanol + dodecane or tetradecane), in turn, was observed in the vicinity of the coordinates of the critical point of these mixtures, thus pointing to the fact that the quasi-aneotropic singularity that affects these mixtures was provoked by the proximity of an immiscibility gap of the liquid phase. Finally, the experimental data of interfacial tensions were smoothed with the Scott-Myers expansion, from which it is possible to conclude that the observed aneotropic concentrations weakly depend on temperature for all the analyzed mixtures. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.