Experimentally determined Henry's law coefficient of phenol, 2-methylphenol and 2-nitrophenol in the temperature range 281-302 K
Abstract
The Henry's Law coefficient is a key physical parameter in the partitioning, and hence
environmental fate, of a chemical species between air and water. Despite the
acknowledged polluting potential of phenol, 2-methylphenol (o-cresol) and 2-
nitrophenol, there is extremely poor agreement in the literature of their Henry's law
coefficients and, in particular, no apparent systematic measurement of the variation
with temperature. Here, a temperature-controlled column-stripping method was
employed to determine Henry's Law coefficients for these compounds over the
temperature range 281–302 K. Coefficients were derived from regression fits to the
observed rates of losses from the liquid phase as a function of column depth in order
to explicitly take account of potential non-attainment of equilibrium between liquid
and gas phases. Temperature dependent expressions summarising the Henry's Law
coefficients of phenol, o-cresol and 2-nitrophenol over the stated temperature range
are ln H(Matm−1)=5850/T−11.6, ln H(Matm−1)=6680/T−15.4 and ln
H(Matm−1)=6270/T−16.6, respectively (to within 15% of all measured values in this
work). A thorough comparison with the previous literature-published values has been
undertaken.