Question 8.10: A container at a pressure p and temperature T contains two s...

A container at a pressure p and temperature T contains two substances 1 and 2, present both in liquid and gas phases. Estimate the partial pressure p_A of substance A in the gas phase (A = 1, 2) as a function of the concentrations c^\ell_1 and c^\ell_1 of substances 1 and 2 in the liquid phase. Raoult’s law relates the partial pressure p_A of substance A to the saturation pressure p°_A ,

p_A = p°_A c^{(\ell)}_A .

where the saturation pressure p°_A is the pressure that the pure substance A would have in the gas phase in equilibrium with the liquid phase at temperature T. Establish Raoult’s law by assuming that the liquid and gas mixtures can be treated as ideal mixtures (§ 8.5.2) and by considering that molar volumes in the liquid phase are negligible compared to molar volumes in the gaseous phase.

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The chemical potentials of substance A in the liquid and gas phases depend on the concentration c^{(g)}_A in the gas phase and c^{(\ell)}_A in the liquid phase according to the ideal mixture mixing law (8.68),

μ_A (T, p, c_A) = μ_A (T, p) + R T \ln (c_A)                 (8.68)

\mu ^{(\ell )}_A \Bigl(T , p ,c^{(\ell )}_A\Bigr) = \mu ^{(\ell )}_A (T,p) + R T \ln \Bigl(c^{(\ell )}_A\Bigr) .

\mu ^{(g)}_A \Bigl(T , p ,c^{(g)}_A\Bigr) = \mu ^{(g)}_A (T,p) + R T \ln \Bigl(c^{(g)}_A\Bigr) .

Here, \mu ^{(\ell )}_A (T,p) and \mu ^{(g)}_A (T,p) are the chemical potential of the pure substance in the liquid and gas phases. When a concentration appears in the argument, then the substance is part of a mixture. Since the problem refers to the saturation pressure p^\circ _A, we want to introduce it in the relations above. For the gaseous phase, we simply apply relation (8.58) and write,

μ (T, p) = μ (T, p_0) + R T \ln \Bigl(\frac{p}{p_0}\Bigr) .       (8.58)

\mu ^{(g)}_A \Bigl(T , p ,c^{(g)}_A\Bigr) = \mu ^{(g)}_A (T,p^\circ _A) + R T \ln \Bigl(\frac{p}{p^\circ _A}\Bigr) + R T \ln \Bigl(c^{(g)}_A\Bigr) .

For the liquid phase, we turn to relation (8.85), that was established for incompressible liquids, and write,

\mu (T,P) – \mu (T,p_{ext}) = \int_{p_{ext}}^{p}{\frac{\partial \mu }{\partial p}dp } = \nu \int_{p_{ext}}^{p}{dp} = \nu (p-p_{ext}) .        (8.85)

\mu ^{(\ell )}_A \Bigl(T , p ,c^{(\ell )}_A\Bigr) = \mu ^{(\ell )}_A (T, p^\circ _A) + (p-p^\circ _A) \nu ^{(\ell )}_A + R T \ln \Bigl(c^{(\ell )}_A\Bigr) .

The equilibrium condition for substance A in the mixture reads,

\mu ^{(g)}_A \Bigl(T , p ,c^{(g)}_A\Bigr) = \mu ^{(\ell )}_A \Bigl(T , p ,c^{(\ell )}_A\Bigr) .

The saturation pressure p^\circ _A is defined by the equilibrium between the liquid and the gas phases of the pure substance, which is characterised by,

\mu ^{(g)}_A (T,p^\circ _A) = \mu ^{(\ell )}_A (T, p^\circ _A) .

Therefore, the equality of the chemical potentials of the substance A in the gas and liquid phases yields,

R T \ln \Bigl(\frac{p}{p^\circ _A}\Bigr) + R T\ln \bigl(c^{(g)}_A\bigr) = (p-p^\circ _A)\nu ^{(\ell )}_A + R T \ln \bigl(c^{(\ell )}_A\bigr) .

which can be recast as,

R T \ln \Bigl(\frac{p  c^{(g)}_A }{p^\circ _A c^{(\ell )}_A}\Bigr) = (p-p^\circ _A)\nu ^{(\ell )}_A .

According to relation (8.67), the partial pressure of substance A in the gaseous phase is p_A = p c^{(g)}_A  , and according to relation (8.89),

\frac{p_A}{p} = \frac{N_A}{\sum\limits_{B=1}^{r}{N_B} } =c_A       (8.67)

p − p_{ext} = \frac{N_s RT}{V}           (8.89)

(p − p^\circ _A) ν^{(g)}_A = R T

which implies that,

\ln \Biggl(\frac{p_A}{p^\circ _A c^{(\ell )}_A}\Biggr) = \frac{\nu ^{(\ell )}_A}{\nu ^{(g)}_A}

Since the molar volume in the liquid phase is negligible compared to the molar volumes in the gas phase, i.e. \nu ^{(\ell )}_A \ll \nu ^{(g)}_A

\ln \Biggl(\frac{p_A}{p^\circ _A c^{(\ell )}_A}\Biggr) \simeq 0

Thus, we recover Raoult’s law,

p_A = p^\circ _A c^{(\ell )}_A .

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