A Simple and Low-Cost Apparatus for Educational Use in the Experiment of Binary Solid-Liquid Phase Diagram

Abstract

The investigation of a solid-liquid phase diagram is of considerable importance in chemistry and material science since it provides in the understanding of the fundamental concepts of phase equilibria. Therefore, most undergraduate physical chemistry laboratory courses must include the experiment of the binary solid-liquid phase diagram as a standard experiment. In this study, a homemade and low-cost apparatus was constructed to acquire the melting points from a set of six cooling curves, which were prepared from six different compositions of selected organic mixtures. The experimental results provided the eutectic temperature and the eutectic composition with good precision and also reproducibility measurement by different groups of students. Moreover, this simple apparatus allows rapid and real-time data acquisition using a personal computer. In addition, the amount of chemicals required for the experiment using this apparatus is also reduced and this is one of the key concept in green chemistry.

Keywords: Laboratory Equipment/Apparatus, solid-liquid phase diagram, physical chemistry laboratory, eutectic temperature