Journal of Chemical and Engineering Data, Vol.64, No.1, 303-314, 2019
Effect of Adding Sodium Chloride on Tetra-n-butylammonium Chloride Semiclathrate Thermal Stability at Atmospheric Pressure
Tetra-n-butyl ammonium chloride (TBAC) is known to form semiclathrate cages when dissolved in water. Melting points determined using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) were used to create a phase diagram for the binary TBAC-H2O semiclathrate system from 0 to 8 molal TBAC at atmospheric pressure. This phase diagram shows the existence of TBAC semiclathrate cages with a congruent melting point at about 286.8 K at approximately 2 molal TBAC as well as the existence of a TBAC-H2O eutectic mixture of unknown composition but with fewer associated water molecules at higher concentrations of TBAC. Further, NaCl was added to this binary system to create ternary solutions of various ionic strength fractions of TBAC (Y-TBAC). The results of DSC scans were used to create a phase diagram which showed that there was no effect on the system if there was sufficient bulk water to dissolve the NaCl. However, if there was insufficient bulk water to dissolve the NaCl, then the water in the clathrate cages of the TBAC was disrupted creating both lower melting semiclathrates, with fewer water molecules within the cage, and a new TBAC-NaCl-H2O peritectic structure of unknown composition with an invariant melting point. Further, if NaCl was added to the binary system with no free, bulk water present (i.e., >= 2 molal TBAC), then this system additionally showed a new eutectic TBAC-NaCl-H2O structure of unknown composition with an invariant melting point.