Solvation Phenomena of Potassium Thiocyanate in Methanol–Water Mixtures

Abstract

This paper reports the results of a variety of experiments carried out for understanding the solvation behavior of potassium thiocyanate in methanol–water mixtures. Electrical conductivity, speed of sound, viscosity, and FT-Raman spectra of potassium thiocyanate solutions in 5 and 10% methanol–water (w/w) mixtures were measured as functions of concentration and temperature. The conductivity and structural relaxation time suggest the ion–solvent and solvent-separated ion–ion associations increase as the salt concentration increases in the mixtures. The Raman band shifts due to the C–O stretching mode of methanol for the solvent mixtures reveal the formation of methanol–water complexes. The significant changes in the Raman bands for the C–N, C–S and O–H stretching modes indicate the presence of SCN−−solvent interactions through the N-end, “free” SCN− and the solvent-shared ion pairs as potassium thiocyanate is added to the methanol–water mixtures. The relative changes corresponding to H–O–H bending and C–O stretching frequencies indicate that K+ is preferentially solvated by water in these solvent mixtures. The appearance and increase of the intensity of a broad band at ≈940 cm−1 upon salt addition was attributed to the SCN−–H2O–K+ solvent-shared ion pairs. No Raman spectral evidence for K+(H2O)n species was observed. The preferential solvation of K+ and SCN− in the methanol−water mixtures was verified by the application of the Kirkwood−Buff theory of solutions. This theory confirms that K+ is strongly preferentially solvated by water, whereas SCN− is preferentially solvated by the methanol component.