SOLUBILITY OF BENZIL IN ORGANIC NONELECTROLYTE SOLVENTS - COMPARISON OF OBSERVED VERSUS PREDICTED VALUES BASED UPON MOBILE ORDER THEORY

Experimental solubilities are reported at 25.0 degrees C for benzil di ssolved in twenty three different organic nonelectrolyte solvents cont aining ester-, ether-, chloro-, hydroxy- and methyl-functional groups. Results of these measurements combined with our previously published benzil solubility data in benzene, toluene, dibutyl ether, carbon tetr achloride and saturated hydrocarbons, are used to test the application s and limitations of expressions derived From Mobile Order theory. For the 30 solvents for which predictions could be made computations show that Mobile Order theory does provide fairly reasonable (although by no means perfect) estimates of the saturation mole Fraction solubiliti es. Average absolute deviation between predicted and observed values i s circa 31%. In comparison, the average absolute deviation increases s ignificantly to 1500% when ideal solution behavior is assumed.