The reaction-field effect on the chemical potentials of polar aprotic non-aromatic liquids 1. Vapour pressure

Abstract

The reaction field for the interaction of a molecule with its identical neighbours is shown to be a major determinant of the chemical potential of many dipolar liquids. The electrostatic potential w, derived for immersion of the dipolar molecule in its own kind, and notably comprising solely static and hf permittivities, is equated with the difference between the polar-liquid chemical potential and that of an isostructural non-polar hydrocarbon. For all the 26 non-aromatic Onsager liquids for which the requisite data are available, acceptable conformity is established of the vapour pressure calculated from w with that observed, fluoro-carbons excepted. If w turns out to be small, vapour pressures of (these 12) dipolars approximate quite closely to those of the isostructural non-polars, as expected. For ketones and nitroalkanes varied-temperature data are available and well reproduced via w: thus calculated vaporization enthalpies equal the observed.