Measurement of Solubilities of Sparingly Soluble Liquids in Water and Aqueous Detergent Solution Using Non-ionic Surfactant

Abstract

Abstract 1. The solubility of iso-amyl alcohol, n-butyl alcohol and benzene were determined by the titration using the surfactant, Tween 80. 2. In the case of iso-amyl alcohol and n-butyl alcohol, the relation between the turbidity and the quantity of solute in surfactant solution is linear, and the solubilitylimits are both lower than the solubilities in pure water in the dilute region of the surfactant. This makes the determination of their solubility easy and accurate both in pure water and aqueous solution of the detergent. 3. The above method cannot be applied directly for the determination of the solubility of benzene. Ethyl alcohol-Tween 80 mixture is used instead of Tween 80 to overcome this difficulty. 4. The solubilities obtained by this method are accurate enough compared with other methods, in the case of iso-amyl alcohol and n-butyl alcohol, possible error being estimated to be 0.4%. In benzene, the error is somewhat larger, but is in good agreement with the values of the literature.