Zhenyu Bao, Weijiang Zhang, Xianbao Cui
2015
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Journal
Asian Journal of Chemistry
Abstract
Trimethyl borate [B(OCH3)3] is an important reagent utilized in many fields, such as catalyst, auxiliary solvent in brasswelding and high-energy fuel in aircrafts. It is synthesized in two ways, one is reaction of boric acid and methanol, the other is reaction of borax, sulfuric acid and methanol. Both ways produce a mixture of trimethyl borate and methanol. Trimethyl borate and methanol form an azeotrope at 328.37 K at 101.3 kPa, which contains 77-78 % (wt. %) trimethyl borate. The azeotrope must be separated in order to facilitate the reaction. Industrially, sulfuric acid is applied to dealcoholize the mixture, however, the product is impure and corrosive. New substitutive methods need to be found. Separation of azeotropes remains a hot issue for chemical engineers, in which a multitude of methods are used, such as, extractive distillation, pressure swing distillation, azeotropic distillation. Extractive distillation is superior to pressure swing distillation when utilized in pressure-insensitive mixtures, which is superior to azeotropic distillation in solvent recovery process as no new azeotrope is formed. However, solvent selection is the main concern for extractive distillation process. More recently, computer-aided molecular design (CAMD) is developed as a novel tool in solvent selection. Usually, performance of selected solvents need to be assessed in order to prevent major flaws produced by computer-aided molecular design. The assessment includes experimental determination of vapour-liquid equilibrium data of the given ternary system. Isobaric Vapour-Liquid Equilibrium for Ternary Systems of Trimethyl Borate-Methanol-Dimethyl Sulfoxide/N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidinone