Date of Award

2014

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Chemical Engineering

First Advisor

Kabadi, Vinayak N.

Abstract

Solid-liquid equilibrium measurements were carried out for a binary system of (decane + dodecane) at several different mole fractions under atmospheric pressure. The work involved the design of new experimental setup for the solid-liquid equilibrium data measurements. The newly designed setup was used to study the freezing curve and solid-liquid transition temperature for pure decane and dodecane as test runs. The main work was to investigate and confirm the binary mixtures which form solid solutions (solid state structure) or eutectic structures (each particular component forms crystals out of the solution separately), and further develop a binary solid-liquid phase diagram for decane and dodecane. The experiment involved the use of an environmental chamber which housed a metal cell with the test liquid placed in it. Liquid samples were taken from the metal cell and analyzed in the Gas Chromatograph (GC) as the melting and freezing went on to determine their composition at various temperatures. The results from the experiment showed that the binary mixture forms a solid solution upon freezing. This was determined by withdrawing liquid samples from the metal cell and analyzing it in the GC as the liquid sample freezes. The liquid composition analyzed by the GC at every 2oC temperature drop turned out to have the same composition as the initial composition placed in the metal cell. This shows that the binary mixture freezes together at a particular temperature. The temperature profiles of several mole fractions were determined and were used to develop the solid-liquid binary phase diagram for decane-dodecane mixture.

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