Structural characterization of the ternary solvent mixture methanol–acetonitrile–1‐propanol

Abstract

Abstract Refractive indices and E T values were measured for the ternary mixture methanol–acetonitrile–1‐propanol at 25.0 °C for 13 mole fractions, and also for the corresponding binary mixtures, methanol–1‐propanol, methanol–acetonitrile and 1‐propanol–acetonitrile, at 25.0 and 50.0 °C, at 10 different compositions. Solvent exchange equilibrium models were applied to the transition energy of the Dimroth–Reichardt E T (30) solvatochromic indicator in the binary systems and the Redlich–Kister polynomial was used to correlate excess E T N and n D values for the binary solvent mixtures data. The results allowed the analysis of synergetic behaviours, polarizability effects and preferential solvation trends both in the binary and in the ternary mixtures. Our results point towards the prevalence of specific solute–solvent–solvent interactions mainly due to hydrogen bonding by the hydroxylic components of the ternary mixture. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.