Determination of Thermodynamic Parameters from Evaporation of Binary Microdroplets of Volatile Constituents

An experimental technique based on a modified vibrating orifice aerosol generator has been employed to study unsteady evaporation of linear streams of highly monodisperse binary microdroplets of volatile constituents over short time periods (i.e., <1 ms), such that the droplet composition remains nearly constant. The droplet size and temperature (i.e., refractive index) have been determined with high temporal resolution from the resonances observed in the simultaneous elastic and Raman light scattering spectra obtained by varying the droplet size through modulation of droplet generation frequency. By using this technique we show that thermodynamic parameters of binary systems, such as activity coefficients as well as vapor pressures of the constituents as functions of temperature, can be determined. We have applied the procedure to study unsteady evaporation rates of pure ethanol and methanol droplets as well as binary droplets containing various ratios of ethanol and methanol. We have obtained vapor pressures of ethanol and methanol as functions of temperature as well as activity coefficients of ethanol and methanol as functions of composition, and the results show excellent agreements with the values reported in the literature. The technique presented in this paper is applicable to any binary system containing at least one volatile constituent. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.