Book Description

Solid-liquid equilibrium in isomorphous amino acid systems has been investigated as a model for systems that form solid solutions. Solid- and liquid-phase compositions in L-valine + L-leucine, L-valine + L-isoleucine, and L-isoleucine + L-valine in water were measured over the entire range of solid composition, and it was shown (from mass balance and phase rule considerations) that these systems form solid solutions. The solid- phases resulting from isothermal and cooling crystallization experiments were also investigated using powder x-ray diffractometry which showed that homogeneous solid solutions could only be obtained in cooling crystallization experiments, whereas isothermal experiments generally produced inhomogeneous solids. This suggests that data reported in the literature from isothermal experiments may not represent true equilibrium values. Solid-phase activity coefficients were estimated using binary and ternary equilibrium data and the UNIFAC-Kuramochi model for liquid-phase nonidealities. The solid phases in the three systems investigated exhibited significant nonidealities that were correlated using the Margules model. The model parameters exhibited a linear relationship with the ratio of binary solubilities of the two solutes. Such simple relationship may be advantageous when solid-liquid equilibrium of thermally unstable solutes or components with unknown physical properties are crystallized.