Journal of Physical Chemistry B, Vol.110, No.44, 22207-22212, 2006
Tricritical phenomena in quasi-ternary mixtures of water plus n-decane plus n-undecane plus tert-butanol
Coexistence curves for the quasi-ternary system of water + n-decane + n-undecane + tert-butanol have been determined by measurements of the refractive index in three coexisting liquid phases. The binary mixtures of n-decane + n-undecane constructed the quasi-pure components in which the mass fraction, of n-decane controls the approach to the tricritical point. The coexistence curves can be fitted to Scott's extended theory and can be extrapolated to a tricritical point at (44.1 +/- 0.3) degrees C and beta = 0.77 +/- 0.02 corresponding to an average n-alkane-carbon number of 10.19 +/- 0.02. The nonclassical critical amplitude ratio has been confirmed to be 4-5% smaller than the classical value, which is consistent with Fisher's prediction.