A STUDY ON THE PREFERENTIAL SOLVATION OF IONS IN MIXED AQUEOUS BINARY SOLVENT SYSTEMS USING THE SCALED PARTICLE THEORY

The free energies of transfer of electrolytes from water to ethylene glycol (EG)-water, 2-methoxyethanol (ME)-water and 1,2-dimethyoxyethane (DME)-water mixtures have been calculated at 25-degrees-C using the scaled particle theory in conjunction with the Born charging equation. The predicted values of transfer free energies have been compared with the corresponding experimental values in order to gain insight into the preferential solvation of ions by water molecules in these solvent mixtures. The results from the present theoretical analysis indicate that in the cosolvent-water mixtures the ease of preferential solvation of electrolytes by water molecules increase in the order DME-water<ME-water<EG-water.