Experimental and theorical study of surface tension and density of 1,2-dimethylbenzene with alkanes at 298.15 K.

Abstract

Methylbenzenes occur in small quantities in naphtha and higher boiling fractions of petroleum. Those presently of commercial importance are toluene, 1,2-Dimethylbenzene (o-xylene), 1,4-Dimethylbenzene (p-xylene), and to a much lesser extent 1,3-Dimethylbenzene (m-xylene). Particularly, 1,2-Dimethylbenzene is mainly used to produce phthalic anhydride for plasticizers. The primary sources of xylenes are reformates from catalytic reforming units, gasoline from catcraking, and pyrolysis gasoline from steam reforming of naphtha and gas oils. Solvent extraction is used to separate these aromatics from the reformate mixtures[1]. For this reason, physical properties of pure liquids and liquid mixtures containing aromatic and aliphatic compounds and their dependence with composition are very important basic data for petrochemical industry. Due to the lack of experimental information regards 1,2-dimethylbenzene, in this work, experimental data of surface tension and density of this compound with octane, nonane and decane at 298.15K and atmospheric pressure are presented. The surface tension deviation and the excess molar volume have been correlated by Redlich Kister polynomial equation. An theoretycal study has been applied in this mixtures using different models [2-3].