Downloaded by UNIV OF NEWCASTLE on March 11, 2017 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date: June 1, 1976 | doi: 10.1021/ba-1976-0155.pr001
PREFACE major symposium on thermodynamic behavior of electrolytes in mixed solvents has been long overdue. This collection of papers attempts to draw together the wide range of effects that electrolytes exert in solvents consisting of two or more components. The papers reflect both the scope of the effects involved and the variety of work being done to elucidate them. Nine different countries are represented by the 25 contributions: the United States, Canada, Britain, Japan, Australia, Czechoslovakia, France, The Netherlands, and Spain. The book is divided into two sections; the first deals with the effects of electrolytes on the composition of the equilibrium vapor phase, and the second with effects on other thermodynamic and physicochemical properties of such solutions. The topic covered in the 10 papers of the first section is commonly referred to as salt effect in vapor-liquid equilibrium and is potentially of great industrial importance. This salt effect leads to extractive distillation processes in which a dissolved salt replaces a liquid additive as the separating agent; the replacement often results in a greatly improved separating ability and reduced energy requirements. Two papers in this volume, those by Sloan and by Vaillancourt, illustrate the use of such processing to concentrate nitric acid from its aqueous azeotrope. Nevertheless, the effect has not been exploited by industry to nearly the extent that would seem to be merited by its scientific promise. The papers in the second section deal primarily with the liquid phase itself rather than with its equilibrium vapor. They cover effects of electrolytes on mixed solvents with respect to solubilities, solvation and liquid structure, distribution coefficients, chemical potentials, activity coefficients, work functions, heat capacities, heats of solution, volumes of transfer, free energies of transfer, electrical potentials, conductances, ionization constants, electrostatic theory, osmotic coefficients, acidity functions, viscosities, and related properties and behavior. In addition to the applications in extractive distillation referred to above, there are other industrial examples where electrolytes in mixed solvents occur. In many industrial situations nonvolatile electrolytes are either added to effect the separation of multicomponent process streams (e.g., the complexing agents added to enhance distribution coefficients in solvent extraction) or are present as a result of the process itself. Exix
Furter; Thermodynamic Behavior of Electrolytes in Mixed Solvents Advances in Chemistry; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1976.
Downloaded by UNIV OF NEWCASTLE on March 11, 2017 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date: June 1, 1976 | doi: 10.1021/ba-1976-0155.pr001
amples of the latter include the product streams from a wide range of chemical processes such as: neutralizations and certain esterifications and etherifications; systems such as those encountered in some fuel cells and batteries; and specialized processing such as certain distillations accompanied by chemical reaction. The properties and behavior of such mixtures must be well understood if separation operations involving them are to be designed effectively. Finally I would like to thank Rose Boucher for stenographic support in the work of organizing and conducting the symposium and in preparing the book, and my wife Pamela for her patience and understanding. Kingston, Ontario WILLIAM F. FURTER
April 15, 1976
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Furter; Thermodynamic Behavior of Electrolytes in Mixed Solvents Advances in Chemistry; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1976.
