Liquid–liquid
equilibrium (LLE) data for the ternary chemical
system of {water + phenol + (propan-2-yl) benzene (cumene)} were presented
at temperatures of 293.2, 298.2, and 308.2 K and under the ambient
pressure of 81.5 kPa. Experiments were performed based on the cloud
point titration method and refractive index measurements. Results
show that the phenol solubility in cumene is significantly higher
than in water especially at higher phenol concentrations. The phenol
distribution coefficient and separation factor were obtained within
1.490–3.418 and 82.06–300.24, respectively. The capability
of cumene, as a solvent to extract phenol from aqueous solutions,
particularly for low level phenol concentrations, was revealed. The
consistency of tie line data was sufficiently assessed by the Othmer–Tobias
and Bachman equations. Meanwhile, the well-known NRTL and UNIQUAC
thermodynamic models were employed to reproduce the experimental data
and obtaining the binary interaction parameters. The appropriate low
value root-mean-square deviations confirm the good agreement between
experimental data and the model correlated values.