Influence of alkyl chain length and temperature on the densities, viscosities and speeds of sound of binary liquid mixtures of {2-methyl-1-butanol + 2-ethoxyethanol, or 2-propoxyethanol, or 2-butoxyethanol} at T = (298.15, 303.15 and 308.15) K

•The thermophysical properties of binary mixtures of 2-methyl-1-butanol with alkoxy ethanols viz., 2-ethoxyethanol, 2-propoxyethanol and 2-butoxyethanol.•The values of VmE are negative for all binary mixtures representing the attractive interactions.•Theoretical analysis of VmE has also been done using the Prigogine–Flory–Patterson theory.•All the excess and deviation parameters have been correlated to the composition with the help of Redlich-Kister type polynomial.•Using viscosity data of binary liquid mixtures, various semi-empirical relations of viscosity were tested. Density (ρ), viscosity (η) and speed of sound (u) of pure components and binary mixtures of 2-methyl-1-butanol with alkoxyethanols viz., 2-ethoxyethanol, 2-propoxyethanol and 2-butoxyethanol have been measured over the entire range of composition at different temperatures T = (298.15, 303.15 and 308.15) K. Using the experimental data various thermophysical properties such as excess molar volume (VmE), excess molar isentropic compressibility (Ks,mE), excess speed of sound (uE), deviation in viscosity (Δη) and excess Gibb’s free energy of activation for viscous flow (ΔG∗E) have been calculated. The excess or deviation properties used to define the molecular interactions between like and unlike components. Further, the values of excess and deviation properties have been fitted to the Redlich-Kister polynomial equation. The measured viscosities have been correlated with various semi-empirical relations such as Grunberg-Nissan, Tamura-Kurata, Hind et al., Katti-Chaudhri, McAllister (three body interaction) model, Heric-Brewer and McAllister (four body interaction) model. Apart from this, Prigogine–Flory–Patterson (PFP) theory is also used for the estimation of VmE values for studied binary mixtures.