Solubility of novel open-chain crown ether bridged diphosphates in supercritical carbon dioxide

• Highly CO2-soluble ethylene oxide diphosphates were designed and synthesized.
• Solubility were determined and correlated by Bartle and Chrastil model.
• Partial molar volumes of these compounds in scCO2 were estimated.
• Branched side chain played an important role in the enhancement of solubility.

The solubility of newly synthesized chelating agents, i.e., tetraethylene glycol bis (2-ethylhexyl) dimethyl diphosphate (EG4EH), tetraethylene glycol bis (n-octyl) dimethyl diphosphate (EG4Oct), and tetraethylene glycol bis (2-butoxyethyl) dimethyl diphosphate (EG4BOE) in supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) were determined at temperatures ranging from (318.15 to 333.15) K and pressures ranging from (12 to 21) MPa. Solubility increases in the order of EG4Oct (MW = 606.33) < EG4BOE (MW = 582.26) < EG4EH (MW = 606.33), indicating that branched side chains of the ligands play an important part in increasing solubility in scCO2. Semi empirical density-based models proposed by Bartle and Chrastil were used to correlate the experimental data, and AARD values were calculated to be (1.2 to 2.9)% and (0.40 to 0.93)% for Bartle and Chrastil model, respectively. Additionally, the partial molar volumes of those compounds were estimated following the theory developed by Kumar and Johnston.