EXPERIMENTAL DETERMINATION OF THE TERNARY DIAGRAM FOR WATER, CHLOROFROM, AND GLASIAL ACETIC ACID

This research aims to experimentally determine the ternary phase diagram for the system comprising water (B), chloroform (A), and glacial acetic acid (C) under constant temperature and pressure conditions[1-2]. The binary system of chloroform (non-polar) and water (polar) exhibits partial miscibility, resulting in the formation of two liquid phases upon mixing.]Glacial acetic acid, characterized as an amphipathic molecule, was employed as a cosolvent to bridge the polarity gap and enhance the mutual solubility between water and chloroform[3-4]. The experimental methodology involved titrating nine different binary mixtures of chloroform and water with glacial acetic acid[5-6]. The titration endpoint, observed as the transition from a clear (homogenous) to a turbid (heterogenous) solution, was used to calculate the mole fraction (XA, XB, XC) for each component[7-8]. These calculated mole fractions establish key data points used to construct the solubility curve (binodal) within the ternary diagram[9-10]. The results demonstrate that the addition of component C successfully increases the mutual solubility of A and B, shifting the phase boundary. The system stability was observed to be relative: mixtures rich in water and acetic acid (e.g., Lab 1: XB = 0.941) remained homogenous, while mixtures with increasing chloroform dominance exhibited two-phase separation (e.g., Lab 9: XA = 0.648). This study successfully constructs the phase map, illustrating the homogenous and heterogenous regions, and facilitates the determination of the isothermal critical point (plait point)[11-12].