Anomalous solubility of organic solutes in supercritical water: A molecular explanation

Biswas, Ranjit and Bagchi, Biman (1999) Anomalous solubility of organic solutes in supercritical water: A molecular explanation. In: Proceedings of the Indian Academy of Sciences Chemical Sciences, 111 (2). pp. 387-394.

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Abstract

In its supercritical state water exhibits anomalous solvent properties, the most important being its ability to solubilize organic solutes of various sizes which are sparingly soluble under ambient conditions. This phenomenon occurs at high pressure where the density is rather large (0.6-0.9 gm/cm(3)). In this work, a microscopic explanation for the anomalous solubility of organic substances in supercritical water is presented by using the quasi-chemical approximation of Bethe and Guggenheim. The theory suggests the enhanced anomalous solubility arises because the critical temperature of the binary mixture (water plus organic solute) could be slightly lower than the gas-liquid critical temperature of pure water. Several exotic solvent properties may arise due to the subtle interplay between these two critical temperatures.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Proceedings of the Indian Academy of Sciences Chemical Sciences
Publisher:	Indian Academy of Sciences
Additional Information:	Copyright for this article belongs to Indian Academy of Sciences.
Keywords:	solubility;organic solutes;supercritical state water;critical temperatures
Department/Centre:	Division of Chemical Sciences > Solid State & Structural Chemistry Unit
Date Deposited:	29 Mar 2005
Last Modified:	19 Sep 2010 04:15
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/1550

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