Influence of Cyclic Dimer Formation on the Phase Behavior of Carboxylic Acids

A new thermodynamic approach based on the Sear and Jackson association theory for doubly bonded dimers [Mol. Phys. 1994, 82, 1033] is proposed to describe the thermodynamic properties of carboxylic acids. The new model is able to simultaneously represent the vapor pressures, saturated densities, and vaporization enthalpies of the shortest acids and is in a much better agreement with experimental data than other approaches that do no consider the formation of cyclic dimers. The new model is applied to mixtures of carboxylic acids with nonassociating compounds, and a very good description of the vapor–liquid equilibria in mixtures of alkanes + carboxylic acids is obtained.