azeotrope

noun, verb — 2 senses

azeotrope

noun

Etymology From Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-, “no”) + ζέω (zéō, “to boil”) + τρόπος (trópos, “state”).

1

Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Physics A mixture of two or more substances whose liquid and gaseous forms have the same composition (at a certain pressure); the substances cannot be separated by normal distillation.

  • The formation of azeotropes due to deviations from Raoult's law was discussed in Section 1.3. An azeotrope is a mixture that, at a given pressure (the azeotropic pressure), boils at a constant temperature (the azeotropic temperature), and has the same composition (the azeotropic composition) in the equilibrium vapor and liquid phases. Homogeneous azeotropes are those that form one liquid phase at equilibrium with the vapor; heterogeneous azeotropes are those that form two liquid phases at equilibrium with each other and the vapor.1999, Fouad M. Khoury, Predicting the Performance of Multistage Separation Processes, 2nd edition, page 289:
  • When a ternary azeotrope does exist, the curves intersect at the same point. The presence of a unitary azeotrope curve is not a prerequisite for the generation of a ternary azeotrope.1999, Cornel Hagiopol, Copolymerization: Toward a Systematic Approach, page 118:
1 more example
  • As the boiling point of HCl–H₂O azeotrope is lower than that of azeotrope (HNO₃–H₂O), hydrochloric acid can be eliminated efficiently by successive evaporations with nitric acid.2006, Marc Pansu, Jacques Gautheyrou, Handbook of Soil Analysis: Mineralogical, Organic and Inorganic Methods, page 903:
Derived terms
heteroazeotrope
Related terms
azeotropic, azeotropy, zeotrope

azeotrope

verb

Etymology From Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-, “no”) + ζέω (zéō, “to boil”) + τρόπος (trópos, “state”).

1

To create a mixture of this kind.

Related terms
eutectic, extractive distillation, salt-effect distillation

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.