Issue 35, 2017

Unifying hydrotropy under Gibbs phase rule

Abstract

The task of elucidating the mechanism of solubility enhancement using hydrotropes has been hampered by the wide variety of phase behaviour that hydrotropes can exhibit, encompassing near-ideal aqueous solution, self-association, micelle formation, and micro-emulsions. Instead of taking a field guide or encyclopedic approach to classify hydrotropes into different molecular classes, we take a rational approach aiming at constructing a unified theory of hydrotropy based upon the first principles of statistical thermodynamics. Achieving this aim can be facilitated by the two key concepts: (1) the Gibbs phase rule as the basis of classifying the hydrotropes in terms of the degrees of freedom and the number of variables to modulate the solvation free energy; (2) the Kirkwood–Buff integrals to quantify the interactions between the species and their relative contributions to the process of solubilization. We demonstrate that the application of the two key concepts can in principle be used to distinguish the different molecular scenarios at work under apparently similar solubility curves observed from experiments. In addition, a generalization of our previous approach to solutes beyond dilution reveals the unified mechanism of hydrotropy, driven by a strong solute–hydrotrope interaction which overcomes the apparent per-hydrotrope inefficiency due to hydrotrope self-clustering.

Graphical abstract: Unifying hydrotropy under Gibbs phase rule

Article information

Article type
Perspective
Submitted
03 Apr 2017
Accepted
25 Apr 2017
First published
11 May 2017

Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2017,19, 23597-23605

Unifying hydrotropy under Gibbs phase rule

S. Shimizu and N. Matubayasi, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2017, 19, 23597 DOI: 10.1039/C7CP02132A

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements