Liquid-liquid equilibria and the interfacial properties of the ternary mixtures water + n-propanol + n-butyl acetate and water + n-butanol + n-butyl acetate

Abstract

In this work, a modified version of the Density Gradient Theory is used to predict the interfacial properties of two industrially relevant systems consisting of water + n-propanol + n-butyl acetate and water + n-butanol + n-butyl acetate and their demixing binary subsystems water + n-butanol and water + n-butyl acetate. Liquid-liquid equilibrium is calculated by applying the NRTL model. Through the combination of the NRTL model with the modified version of the Density Gradient Theory, the interfacial tension and the interfacial concentration profiles of the considered ternary mixtures are predicted based on the influence parameters of the binary demixed subsystems. It can be deduced that the predictions of the interfacial tension of both investigated ternary systems are trusted and experimental data sets from this work are in excellent agreement with the predictions. Phenomena like the selective enrichment of the solubilizing component in the interface are observed.