Accurate excess molar volumes (V-E), at ambient pressure and 303.15 K, have been determined in the ternary liquid mixtures of N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) + 2-pentanone (PE) + 1-alkan-1-ols (C-3-C-6) and in the binary mixtures of PE + alkan-1-ols (C3-C6) as a function of composition. The alkanols include 1-propanol, 1-butanol, 1-pentanol and 1-hexanol. The intermolecular interactions and structural effects were analyzed on the basis of the measured and derived properties. Excess molar volumes increase in magnitude with increase in chain length of alcohol. Valuable information on the behavior and governing factors of the liquid structure of the strongly associated solvents studied were inferred from the parameters deduced. The V-E results were correlated and fitted by the Redlich-Kister equation for binary mixtures and by the Cibulka equation for ternary mixtures, as a function of mole fraction. Several predictive empirical relations were applied to predict the excess volumes of ternary mixtures from the binary mixing data. An analysis of the data indicates a good agreement between experimental results and predicted values in all ternary systems. A discussion is presented and deviations are interpreted in terms of size, shape, the position of ketone group, the chain length of alkanol and hydrogen bond effects in the liquid mixtures studied to explain chemical and thermophysical behavior. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.