Solvent Effects on Chemical Processes, I: Solubility of Aromatic and Heterocyclic Compounds in Binary Aqueous—Organic Solvents

Abstract

The standard free energy change (ΔG°) for equilibrium dissolution in binary solvent mixtures is written as a sum of effects arising from solvent—solvent interactions (the general medium effect), solvent—solute interactions (the solvation effect), and solute—solute interactions (the intersolute effect). The general medium effect is given by gAγ, where g is a curvature correction factor to the surface tension (γ) and A is the molecular cavity surface area. A new feature is the definition of γ to be that value appropriate to the equilibrium mean solvation shell composition. The solvation effect is modeled by stoichiometric stepwise competitive equilibria between the two solvent components for the solute. The intersolute effect includes the crystal energy and solution phase interactions. In this work, water was solvent component 1, and various miscible organic cosolvents served as solvent component 2. Relating all data to the fully aqueous solution gives an explicit expression for δMΔG°, the solvent effect on the free energy change, as a function of the mole fractions x1 and x2. This function is a binding isotherm. Nonlinear regression leads (for a two‐step solvation scheme) to estimates of the solvation exchange constants K1, and K2 and the parameter gA. This relationship was applied to 44 systems comprising combinations of 31 solutes and eight organic cosolvents. Curve fits were good to excellent, and most of the parameter estimates had physically reasonable magnitudes.