Solubility of helium and hydrogen in some water + alcohol systems

Abstract

The solubility of helium and of hydrogen in water + ethanol and in water + t-butanol mixtures has been measured over the whole range of mixture compositions and at several temperatures between 4 and 62°C. The thermodynamic functions ΔG^⊖, ΔH^⊖, ΔS^⊖ and ΔC^⊖_p were calculated for the solution process, assuming ideal behaviour. The dependence of these functions on alcohol concentration and on the gaseous solute provides further evidence that the effect of these substances on the structure of water is related to the size of their molecules. A detailed analysis supports the “flickering-cluster” model of water structure, and provides some indication of relative cluster size and its temperature dependence.