Relaxation rate and scaling function of the critical system 3-methylpentane-nitroethane-cyclohexane

Abstract

The critical system 3-methylpentane-nitroethane-cyclohexane (3-MP-NE-CH) has been investigated and compared to the limiting binary systems 3-MP-NE as well as NE-CH in order to study the degree of renormalization in the critical exponents of the ternary system. The solubility curves of the 3-MP-NE-CH system have been determined at various molar ratios of the nonpolar constituents in order to obtain the plait points as a function of mixture composition. At the col point (the mixture with the lowest transition temperature) and two further plait point compositions shear viscosity, dynamic light scattering, and frequency-dependent ultrasonic attenuation coefficient measurements have been performed as a function of temperature near the critical temperatures. The fluctuation correlation length and the relaxation rate of fluctuations display power law behavior as a function of reduced temperature, with universal critical exponents nu = 0.63 and nuZ(0) = 1.928, respectively, as characteristic for binary critical mixtures. In conformity with the 3-MP-NE and NE-CH critical mixtures the scaling function in the ultrasonic spectra nicely agrees with the empirical scaling function of the Bhattacharjee-Ferrell dynamic scaling theory. Hence with respect to power laws and scaling the 3-MP-NE-CH system behaves like a quasibinary mixture. The individual amplitudes of the relaxation rate show a minimum at the col point composition, corresponding with a maximum in the background viscosity of the liquids. The amount of the adiabatic coupling constant g, derived from the amplitudes in the ultrasonic spectra, increases monotonously when going from NE-CH (/g/ = 0.1) to 3-MP-NE (/g/ = 0.26).