Vapor-liquid equilibria system : carbon tetra-chloride, toluene, n-heptane

Author

Joel Philip Pearlstein, New Jersey Institute of Technology

Document Type

Thesis

Date of Award

6-30-1962

Degree Name

Master of Science in Chemical Engineering - (M.S.)

Department

Chemical Engineering

First Advisor

Joseph Joffe

Second Advisor

C. L. Mantell

Third Advisor

George C. Keeffe

Abstract

A study was made of the vapor-liquid equilibria of the ternary system: carbon tetrachloride (CCl₄), n-Heptane (C₇H₁₆) and Toluene (C₇H₈). An Othmer still was used for the determination of the equilibria and the liquid and vapor compositions were ascertained by refractive index and density measurements. A comparison between experimental values and theoretical values was made using the Margules 3-suffix ternary equations for the correlation. Although the Margules equations did not correlate the experimental data very well, this is most likely due to the fact that the ternary solution was close to being ideal and since the activity coefficients were therefore near unity, the logarithmic functions were very sensitive.

It was necessary, both for the determination of new data and the evaluation of the techniques and equipment used, to investigate the vapor-liquid equilibria of each of the three binary systems. Many previous studies of the Toluene-n-Heptane system have been made and the experimental results of this investigation checked closely with those found by other experimenters. This agreement with the literature data validated the procedures and equipment used in this study.

Only one previous investigation of the Toluene-Carbon tetra-chloride system was found and this was part of a doctorial thesis which had been undertaken in 1929. Although the experimental data of this binary did not agree as closely with the literature values as those of the Toluene-n-Heptane system, they were within the range expected when different apparatus and techniques are used to evaluate the same system.

The data presented in this paper for the Carbon-Tetrachloride-n-Heptane binary and the ternary system have not been published previously.

All of the binary systems were compared to theoretical results by the use of the Margules binary equations. The correlation was limited in the same way as the ternary in that the binarys were almost ideal solutions and the activity coefficients were close to unity.

Recommended Citation

Pearlstein, Joel Philip, "Vapor-liquid equilibria system : carbon tetra-chloride, toluene, n-heptane" (1962). Theses. 3175.
https://digitalcommons.njit.edu/theses/3175