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On the design of experiments for determining ternary mixture free energies from static light scattering data using a nonlinear partial differential equation.

ABSTRACT: We mathematically design sets of static light scattering experiments to provide for model-independent measurements of ternary liquid mixing free energies to a desired level of accuracy. A parabolic partial differential equation (PDE), linearized from the full nonlinear PDE [D. Ross, G. Thurston, and C. Lutzer, J. Chem. Phys. 129, 064106 (2008)], describes how data noise affects the free energies to be inferred. The linearized PDE creates a net of spacelike characteristic curves and orthogonal, timelike curves in the composition triangle, and this net governs diffusion of information coming from light scattering measurements to the free energy. Free energy perturbations induced by a light scattering perturbation diffuse along the characteristic curves and towards their concave sides, with a diffusivity that is proportional to the local characteristic curvature radius. Consequently, static light scattering can determine mixing free energies in regions with convex characteristic curve boundaries, given suitable boundary data. The dielectric coefficient is a Lyapunov function for the dynamical system whose trajectories are PDE characteristics. Information diffusion is heterogeneous and system-dependent in the composition triangle, since the characteristics depend on molecular interactions and are tangent to liquid-liquid phase separation coexistence loci at critical points. We find scaling relations that link free energy accuracy, total measurement time, the number of samples, and the interpolation method, and identify the key quantitative tradeoffs between devoting time to measuring more samples, or fewer samples more accurately. For each total measurement time there are optimal sample numbers beyond which more will not improve free energy accuracy. We estimate the degree to which many-point interpolation and optimized measurement concentrations can improve accuracy and save time. For a modest light scattering setup, a sample calculation shows that less than two minutes of measurement time is, in principle, sufficient to determine the dimensionless mixing free energy of a non-associating ternary mixture to within an integrated error norm of 0.003. These findings establish a quantitative framework for designing light scattering experiments to determine the Gibbs free energy of ternary liquid mixtures.

SUBMITTER: Wahle CW

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3411594 | biostudies-other | 2012 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Project description:We extend methods of solution of a light scattering partial differential equation for the free energy of mixing to apply to connected, isotropic ternary liquid composition domains that do not touch all three binary axes. To do so we mathematically analyze the problem of inferring needed Dirichlet boundary data, and solving for the free energy, with use of hypothetical static light scattering measurements that correspond to dielectric composition gradient vectors that have distinct directions. The physical idea behind the technique is that contrasting absorption properties of mixture components can result in such distinctly directed dielectric composition gradient vectors, due to their differing wavelength dependences of dielectric response. At suitably chosen wavelengths, contrasting light scattering efficiency patterns in the ternary composition triangle can then correspond to the same underlying free energy, and enlarge the scope of available information about the free energy, as shown here. We show how to use distinctly directed dielectric gradients to measure the free energy on both straight lines and curves within the ternary composition triangle, so as to provide needed Dirichlet conditions for light scattering partial differential equation solution. With use of Monte Carlo simulations of noisy light scattering data, we provide estimates of the overall system measurement time and sample spacing needed to determine the free energy to a desired degree of accuracy, for various angles between the assumed dielectric gradient vectors, and indicate how the measurement time depends on instrumental throughput parameters. The present analysis methods provide a way to use static light scattering to measure, directly, mixing free energies of many systems that contain such restricted liquid domains, including aqueous solutions of biological macromolecules, micellar mixtures and microemulsions, and many small molecule systems that are important in separation technology.

Project description:We investigate the possibility of using light scattering data in the single-phase regions of a ternary liquid mixture phase diagram to infer ternary mixture coexistence curves, and to infer tie lines joining the compositions of isotropic liquid phases in thermodynamic equilibrium. Previous analyses of a nonlinear light scattering partial differential equation (LSPDE) show that it provides for reconstruction of ternary [D. Ross, G. Thurston, and C. Lutzer, J. Chem. Phys. 129, 064106 (2008); C. Wahle, D. Ross, and G. Thurston, J. Chem. Phys. 137, 034201 (2012)] and quaternary [C. Wahle, D. Ross, and G. Thurston, J. Chem. Phys. 137, 034202 (2012)] mixing free energies from light scattering data, and that if the coexistence curves are already known, it can also yield ternary tie lines and triangles [D. Ross, G. Thurston, and C. Lutzer, J. Chem. Phys. 129, 064106 (2008)]. Here, we show that the LSPDE can be used more generally, to infer phase boundaries and tie lines from light scattering data in the single-phase region, without prior knowledge of the coexistence curve, if the single-phase region is connected. The method extends the fact that the reciprocal light scattering intensity approaches zero at the thermodynamic spinodal. Expressing the free energy as the sum of ideal and excess parts leads to a natural family of Padé approximants for the reciprocal Rayleigh ratio. To test the method, we evaluate the single-phase reciprocal Rayleigh ratio resulting from the mean-field, regular solution model on a fine grid. We then use a low-order approximant to extrapolate the reciprocal Rayleigh ratio into metastable and unstable regions. In the metastable zone, the extrapolation estimates light scattering prior to nucleation and growth of a new phase. In the unstable zone, the extrapolation produces a negative function that in the present context is a computational convenience. The original and extrapolated reciprocal light scattering are jointly used as input to solving the LSPDE to deduce the mixing free energy and its convex hull. When projected onto the composition triangle, the boundary of the convexified part of the free energy is the phase boundary, and lines on the convexified region along which the second directional derivative is zero are the tie lines. We find that the tie lines and phase boundaries so deduced agree well with their exact values. This work is a step toward developing methods for inferring phase boundaries from real light scattering intensities measured with noise, from mixtures having compositions on a coarser grid.

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On the design of experiments for determining ternary mixture free energies from static light scattering data using a nonlinear partial differential equation.

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