title: Ammonium bisulfate/water: a pseudobinary system.
abstract: We have studied the ammonium bisulfate/water system using thermal analysis (differential scanning calorimetry) and infrared spectroscopy of thin films. Our results for the melting points for ice and letovicite are in good agreement with other experimental work. However, we report here the first measurements of the ice/ammonium bisulfate/letovicite invariant point. We have used our observations and solubility data to construct a complete phase diagram for this system. Utilizing phase diagram theory and the Gibbs phase rule, we conclude that this system is not a true binary system but rather a pseudobinary system, which has a range of concentrations that cannot be represented by a simple binary phase diagram and thus must be viewed as part of the ternary system: H(2)SO(4)/(NH(4))(2)SO(4)/H(2)O. We also compared our results to the phase diagram predictions of the aerosol inorganics model and found the predicted melting points are in good agreement with experimental work over a limited concentration range, but the transitions predicted by the model at lower temperatures are not in agreement with experimental results.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, 54601, USA. Beyer.Keit@UWLAX.EDU
authors.forename: Keith D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Beyer
authors.forename: Jameson
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bothe