Calculation of vapor-liquid equilibrium of binary precious metal alloys using modified molecular interaction volume model

Abstract

In this work, the activities and activity coefficients of binary precious metal alloys (Ag-Pb, Ag-Sb, Ag-Bi, Au-Pb, Pd-Pb, Pt-Pb and Cu-Pb) were predicted using molecular interaction volume model (MIVM), modified MIVM (M-MIVM), Wilson equation and nonrandom two-liquid (NRTL) model. The average standard deviation and average relative deviations of these models were also calculated. The results show that the prediction deviations of the M-MIVM were smallest among the four thermodynamic models, indicating that the M-MIVM is reliable. On this premise, the separation coefficient and vapor-liquid equilibrium (VLE) data of Ag-Pb, Au-Pb, Pd-Pb and Pt-Pb were calculated based on the M-MIVM. The results show that the separation coefficients were much larger than one, indicating that these alloys can be easily separated by vacuum distillation. There is good agreement between the predicted and experiment VLE data, indicating that M-MIVM is reliable for the VLE calculation in vacuum distillation. The VLE phase diagrams procured in this work can afford theoretical guidance for experimental design and industrial production in vacuum distillation.