Applications of an infrared thermography method for solid-liquid equilibria modeling of organic binary systems

Abstract

The solid-liquid equilibria (SLE) modeling of fatty acids binary systems is known as a challenging topic. Due to their complex phase diagrams and to their inherent nature to polymorphism, the modeling of the solid-liquid equilibria of the fatty acids blends requires a significant amount of data obtained with numerous techniques. The infrared thermography method (IRT) proves to be an interesting alternative by providing large quantities of phase transitions data, including the potential detection of the polymorphic ones. In this work, the applicability of this method for SLE modeling is assessed based on two criteria: i) the accuracy of empirical and theoretical models is assessed in comparison with IRT data; ii) the polymorphic transition temperatures detected via IRT are used as inputs in a model using polymorphic transition enthalpies as adjusting parameters. Polymorphic transitions data is compared to literature and to DSC measurements to evaluate the reliability of IRT for polymorphic transitions detection and of the estimated enthalpies consistency.