Thermochimica Acta, Vol.321, No.1-2, 127-131, 1998
The phase diagram of cyclohexane-methanol: a challenge in chemical education
Cloud point and cooling curve studies of the cyclohexane-methanol system were ideally suited as a laboratory exercise for a physical chemistry curriculum. Within 3-4 h, students can obtain a sufficient number of relatively precise experimental data (temperature vs. mol fraction of. methanol) to construct the major pan of the solid-liquid phase diagram. The experimental procedure is bused on three different methods. (1) cloud points were detected using an H-Ne laser: (2) temperatures of the methanol-rich part below the monotectic were taken when the first crystals of cyclohexane become visible: and (3) cooling curves were recorded in order to determine the melting point of C6H12 and the monotectic temperature. The results of the system exhibiting an upper critical solution temperature. UCST. agreed reasonably with the most reliable data presently available. Assuming a tetrameric methanol species, the experimental T-x data of the freezing-point depression and the sub-monotectic curve were fitted to a sub-regular model with three adjustable parameters for the liquid phase. However. only an extended Ising model agreed with the experimental curve near the critical temperature.