Modeling Surface Tension of Concentrated and Mixed-Solvent Electrolyte Systems

A comprehensive model has been developed for calculating the surface tension of aqueous, nonaqueous, and mixedsolvent electrolyte systems ranging from dilute solutions to fused salts. Themodel consists of a correlation for computing the surface tension of solvent mixtures and an expression for the effect of electrolyte concentration. The dependence of surface tension on electrolyte concentration has been derived from the Gibbs equation combined with a modified Langmuir adsorption isotherm for modeling the surface excess of species. The model extends the Langmuir adsorption formalism by introducing the effects of binary interactions between solute species (ions or molecules) on the surface. This extension is especially important for high electrolyte concentrations and in strongly speciated systems. The surface tension of mixed solvents is calculated by utilizing the surface tensions of the constituent pure components together with an effective surface concentration, which is defined for each component and takes into account interactions between solvent molecules. This procedure has been shown to reproduce experimental data for a variety of mixtures. In particular, it accurately predicts the surface tension of ternary solvent mixtures using parameters determined from only binary data. The surface tension model has been coupled with a previously developed thermodynamic equilibriummodel to provide speciation and activity coefficients, which are necessary for electrolyte systems. This makes it possible to reproduce the effects of complexation or other reactions in solution. In all cases for which experimental data are available and have been tested, the new model has been shown to be accurate in reproducing surface tension over wide ranges of temperature and concentration. The average deviations between the calculated results and experimental data are 0.68% for binary solvent mixtures, 1.89% for ternary solvent mixtures, and 0.71% for salt solutions up to the solid saturation or pure solute limit.