Calculating the Enthalpy of Vaporization of Ethanol, n-Heptane, Isooctane, and a Binary Mixture of Isooctane + n-Heptane from Their Vapor Pressure Data

Abstract

Conspectus A key physical property of volatile liquids is vapor pressure (VP). Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are a classification of compounds directly associated with low boiling points, high rates of evaporation, and high flammability. The majority of chemists and chemical engineers were directly exposed to the odor of simple ethers, acetone, and toluene in the air while taking an organic chemistry laboratory course as an undergraduate student. These are just a few examples of the numerous VOCs produced by the chemical industry. When toluene is poured into a beaker from its reagent bottle, its vapors readily evaporate at ambient temperature from this open container. When the cap is securely placed back on the reagent bottle of toluene, a dynamic equilibrium develops and exists in this closed environment. This chemical concept is known as a vapor–liquid phase equilibrium. A crucial physical property of spark-ignition (SI) fuels is high volatility. In the United States, most of the vehicles traveling on the road today have SI engines. Gasoline is the fuel used to power these engines. It is a major product manufactured by the petroleum industry. This fuel is petroleum based since it is a refined product of crude oil consisting of a mixture of hydrocarbons, additives, and blending agents. Thus, gasoline is homogeneous solution of VOCs. The VP as a function of temperature of a pure VOC can readily be measured using an ebulliometer. The VP is also known in the literature as the “bubble point pressure”. In this investigation, the VP as a function of temperature was acquired for the VOCs ethanol, isooctane (2,2,4-trimethylpentane), and n-heptane. The latter two VOCs are primary reference fuels components found in 87, 89, and 92 grade gasoline. Ethanol is an oxygenate additive of gasoline. The VP of a homogeneous binary mixture of isooctane and n-heptane was also acquired using the same ebulliometer and methodology. In our work, an enhanced ebulliometer was used to collect the VP data in our work. It is known as the vapor pressure acquisition system. The devices that comprise the system automatically acquire the VP data and log it into an excel spreadsheet. The data are readily transformed into information to compute the heat of vaporization (ΔH vap ). The results described in this Account compare quite favorably to the literature values. This validates our system for performing fast and reliable VP measurements.