Estimation of thermal conductivity of binary liquid mixtures employing new approach

Thermal conductivity of liquids and liquid mixtures has been a subject of active and considerable interest because of its technological applications as well as for providing an insight into the various molecular processes. Similarly, a study of thermal conductivity of liquids and liquid mixtures, at varying temperature and pressure, is of significance due to its applicability in process design, development and optimization in engineering chemistry and energy related industries. In recent past, successful attempts have been made to predict thermal conductivity of liquids and liquid solutions. Literature survey has revealed that a number of physical properties can be estimated by employing various group contribution approaches. Recently, a new group contribution approach has been proposed to predict the thermal conductivity of glassy and amorphous polymers. Very recently, theoretical methods employed for gases were extended to study thermal conductivity and viscosity of binary liquid mixtures. The aim of the present investigation is an attempt to extend one of the existing group contribution methods, viz. the Sato-Riedel method, for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, to compute thermal conductivity of four binary liquid solutions, viz. ethylene glycol dimethyl ether (MEGDME) + n-dodecane (I), diethylene glycol dimethyl ether (DEG-DME) + n-dodecane (II), triethylene glycol dimethyl ether (TRG-DME) + n-dodecane (III) and diethylene glycol dibutyl ether (DEG-DBE) + ndodecane (IV) at 298.15 K and 323.15 K. Apart from this, a new empirical relation has also been proposed to compute the thermal conductivity and a comparative study has then been carried out.