Solubility behavior investigation of 1,4-cyclohexanedione in ten pure organic solvents by solubility measurement, correlation, DFT calculation and thermodynamic analysis

Abstract

As an important raw material in industrial production, the solubility studies of 1,4-cyclohexanedione (14CHD) in organic solvents may be of assistance in improving crystallization efficiency and yield in industry. Therefore, this work deeply explored the dissolution behavior of 14CHD by using the isothermal saturation method, model fitting and density functional theory (DFT) calculation. Firstly, we selected ten pure organic solvents that are environmentally friendly to measure the solubility of 14CHD at the temperature range of 278.15 ∼ 313.15 K under standard atmospheric pressure. According to the measurement results, the solubility of 14CHD increases with temperature, and there are some differences among the solubility of 14CHD in various solvents. For instance, it has a highest solubility in acetonitrile (x1 = 0.5331) at 313.15 K while has the lowest solubility (x1 = 6.757 × 10-4) in cyclohexane at 283.15 K. Whereafter, the measured solubility data was correlated by Van't Hoff equation, modified Apelblat equation, λh model, Yaws model and Wilson model. Among them, Yaws model represents the most accurate fitting outcomes. At the same time, the study results of mixing thermodynamic properties on the basis of Wilson model suggest that the dissolution processes of 14CHD in ten organic solvents are entropy-driven and spontaneous. Afterwards, in order to explain the large difference in solubility of 14CHD in ten organic solvents, we found that the dissolution of 14CHD depends mostly on the polarity (π) and cohesive energy density (CED), viewed from the physicochemical factors of solvents. Furthermore, we further studied intermolecular interactions between 14CHD and ten solvents through molecular electrostatic potential surface (MEPS) analysis and DFT methods. Results display that alcoholic and non-alcoholic solvents molecules have different sites of action with 14CHD and the absolute values orders of interaction energies of alcoholic and non-alcoholic solvents are all consistent with corresponding solubility laws. The solvent–solute interaction plays an important role in the solubilities of 14CHD.