Heterogeneity in binary mixtures of (water + tertiary butanol): temperature dependence across mixture composition

The temperature dependence of solution heterogeneity in binary mixtures of water and tertiary butanol (TBA) and its effects on a chemical reaction have been investigated by using steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopic experiments within the temperature range of 278 ≤ T/K ≤ 373. Eleven different mole fractions of TBA, covering extremely low TBA mole fractions to pure TBA, have been considered. An organic chromophore that undergoes a photoexcited intramolecular charge-transfer reaction is employed to reveal the signature of the solution heterogeneity. Upon increasing the solution temperature, the absorption spectrum of the dissolved chromophore exhibits a red shift at very low TBA concentrations but shifts toward higher energy (blue shift) at higher alcohol concentrations. This is a reflection of temperature-assisted aggregation of TBA molecules in very dilute aqueous solutions. The magnitude of the temperature-induced red shift is the largest at around 0.04 mol fraction of TBA, and a larger variation of the spectral line width across the temperature suggests enhanced solution heterogeneity. Reaction time constants measured at various mixture compositions are found to follow an Arrhenius-type temperature dependence. The average activation energy, when plotted as a function of mixture composition, steeply rises with TBA concentration in the limit of the very low TBA mole fraction and then suddenly levels off to a plateau upon further addition of TBA. The alcohol concentration-dependent activation energy abruptly changes its slope at a TBA mole fraction ∼0.1, at which a transition from the three-dimensional water-type network to the zigzag alcohol chain structure is known to occur. The plateau value of the activation energy is ∼6k(B)T and agrees well with the earlier estimate for the same chromophore from the pure solvent data at room temperature. The observed increase in the spectral red shift with temperature at low TBA mole fractions is in general agreement with the existing experimental results which support the view that temperature assists the aggregation of TBA molecules in dilute aqueous solutions of TBA. However, unlike in the small-angle neutron scattering study [ Bowron, D. T.; Finney, J. L. J. Phys. Chem. B 2007, 111, 9838], which finds clustering of TBA molecules reaching a maximum at ∼353 K, the present data do not indicate any such temperature maximum within the temperature range of 278 ≤ T/K ≤ 373.