Thermodynamic description and unidirectional solidification of eutectic organic alloys: I. Succinonitrile-(d)camphor system

Abstract The temperature and enthalpy of transformations of organic alloys from the binary system succinonitrile-( d )camphor were measured by means of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) within the entire composition range. The analytical description of the Gibbs energies of pure succinonitrile (SCN) and pure ( d )camphor (DC) were derived utilizing the data on temperature and enthalpy of transformations, and temperature dependencies of heat capacity available in the literature. The phase diagram for the binary SCN-DC system was assessed via the CALPHAD approach using Thermo-Calc by simultaneously optimizing the thermodynamic and phase equilibrium data available in the literature and measured in the present work. A good agreement between the experimental and calculated data for the phase diagram as well as for the thermochemical properties was achieved. Experiments and calculations show that the binary system SCN-DC has an eutectic reaction with the eutectic point at 311.5 K and 13.9 mol% DC. The enthalpy of mixing derived in the optimisation proves weak attractive interaction between dissimilar molecules. Unidirectional solidification of the eutectic alloy was performed in order to verify the nature of the eutectic: we find that eutectic growth occurs with both solid phases being nonfacetted and with a rod-like eutectic structure consisting of 23 vol% (DC) and 77 vol% (SCN). Due to the optical activity of DC its distribution in the solid sample is well detectible in polarised light.