IR Study of Monomer–Dimer Self-association of 2,2-Dimethyl-3-ethyl-3-pentanol in n-Octane: Determination of the Molar Absorptivities of Monomer and Dimer Bands, and Dimerization Constants Using Novel Equations

Abstract

The monomer–dimer self-association equilibrium of 2,2-dimethyl-3-ethyl-3-pentanol in n-octane has been studied by IR spectroscopy at four temperatures (288, 298, 308, and 318 K). The solute was chosen to restrict the self-association between solute molecules to dimerization only, owing to steric hindrance of the bulky chains in the vicinity of the OH group. Two linear equations have been derived for the treatment of the experimental data. One of these equations was used to treat the data of the concentration dependent integrated absorbance of the monomer bands for each temperature to obtain the monomer molar absorptivity, ε m, and dimerization constant, K. The other equation was used to treat the data of concentration-dependent dimer bands to obtain the dimer molar absorptivity, ε d, and K. Thus, the dimerization constant was determined by two methods. Since the same thermodynamic quantity K is obtained from either the monomer bands or the dimer bands, the difference between them at a given temperature can serve as an assessment of the quality of the experiment. The standard enthalpy and entropy of dimerization were also obtained from a van’t Hoff plot.