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

      Ranjit Biswas Biman Bagchi

      Rapid Communication Volume 111 Issue 2 April 1999 pp 387-394

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      Permanent link:
      https://www.ias.ac.in/article/fulltext/jcsc/111/02/0387-0394

    • Keywords

       

      Anomalous solubility; supercritical water; organic solutes; quasichemical approximation; binary solution critical temperature; interaction energies

    • 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/cm3). 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 (waterplus 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.

    • Author Affiliations

       

      Ranjit Biswas1 2 Biman Bagchi1 3

      1. Solid State and Structural Chemistry Unit, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore - 560 012, India
      2. Department of Chemistry, 152 Davey Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA - 16802-6300, USA
      3. Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin, 1101 University Avenue, Madison, WI - 53706, USA

    • Dates

       
      Published
      April 1999
      Manuscript received
      13 October 1998

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