Phase Behavior of Binary Mixture of Heptaethylene Glycol Decyl Ether and Water: Formation of Phase Compound in Solid Phase

Abstract

Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) were used to construct and characterize the phase diagram for a binary mixture of heptaethylene glycol decyl ether (C10E7) and water in the temperature range from −60 to 80°C. Plots of the endothermic peak temperatures obtained by DSC measurements against compositions provided eutectic solid–liquid phase boundaries with a eutectic composition of 34 wt% of H2O. On the other hand, heat of fusion per unit weight of the mixture changed discretely at the composition corresponding to the “eutectic” composition. Furthermore, the IR spectra obtained for the mixture in the solid phase were well reproduced as a superposition of those for the mixture of 34 wt% H2O and pure components but were not reproduced by superimposing the spectra obtained for the solid surfactant and ice. These observations indicate that a solid phase compound is formed between C10E7and water with a stoichiometry of 1:14 and that the compound and pure components exist as separate phases, rather than the phases separating into surfactant and ice, which would be expected if the C10E7/water mixture formed a true eutectic mixture system. It is estimated from the composition corresponding to the phase compounds that two molecules of water per oxyethylene unit are bound to hydrophilic polyoxyethylene chain of C10E7to form a hydrated compound.