title: Effect of phase behavior and pressure on the constant-volume heat capacity and intermolecular interaction of CO2-ethanol and CO2-n-pentane mixtures in the critical region.
abstract: Study on the properties of the fluids near the critical point of mixed systems is a key for the development of supercritical (SC) technology and for the further understanding of the features of supercritical fluids (SCFs). The constant-volume molar heat capacity (Cv) of a solution is directly related to the internal energy, intermolecular interaction, and the microstructure of the solution. In this work, the Cv of CO2-n-pentane and CO2-ethanol systems was determined at 308.15 K in different phase regions. This work focuses on how the properties of the mixtures change with pressure, composition, and the structure of the components near the critical point of the mixtures. It was found that at fixed composition, a maximum in Cv versus pressure curve exists (Cv(max)) that occurs at the pressure at which the isothermal compressibility (K(T)) is the largest. We deduced that breaking the "clusters" in the SC mixtures is an endothermic process. It is very interesting that Cv increases sharply as the pressure approaches the critical point (CP) or bubble point (BP), while Cv is nearly independent of pressure and composition at the pressures well above the CP or BP pressure, and that the Cv at CP or BP can be several times larger than that at the high pressures. It can be deduced that at fixed composition the degree of "clustering" changes significantly with pressure near the CP or BP, and is the largest at CP and BP.
authors.affiliation: Center for Molecular Sciences, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing.
authors.forename: Hongping
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Xiaogang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Buxing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Zhimin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu