Analysis of partition coefficients of ternary liquid-liquid equilibrium systems and finding consistency using uniquac model

The objective of this study is to investigate the change in partition coefficient with a change in the concentration of the solute in a liquid system consisting of two relatively immiscible solvents. To investigate the changes in the partition coefficients, the data of the partition coefficients at infinite dilution and the ternary Liquid-Liquid Equilibrium (LLE) data at finite concentrations of the solute should be consistent. In this study, 29 ternary systems that are found in literature and for which the partition coefficients at infinite dilution and the ternary LLE data cannot be predicted accurately by the universal quasi-chemical (UNIQUAC) model are identified. On the basis of this model, some consistent and inconsistent ternary systems are introduced. Three inconsistent systems, namely hexane-butanol-water, CCl4 (carbon tetrachloride)-PA (propanoic acid)-water, and hexane-PA- water, are chosen for detailed analysis in this study. The UNIQUAC activity coefficient model is used to represent these data over a range of concentrations. The results show large errors, exhibiting the inability of this model to correlate the data. Furthermore, some ternary systems in which cross behavior of solutes between two phases observed are identified.