Quaternary (liquid + liquid) equilibria of aqueous two-phase polyethylene glycol, poly-N-vinylcaprolactam, and KH2PO4: Experimental and the generalized Flory–Huggins theory

A quaternary (liquid + liquid) equilibrium study was performed to focus attention on the interaction parameters between poly-N-vinylcaprolactam (PVCL) and poly-ethylene glycol (PEG) as well as between other species. At first, the new experimental data of (liquid + liquid) equilibria for aqueous two-phase systems containing PEG, KH2PO4, and PVCL at T = 303.15 K have been determined. Then the Flory–Huggins theory with two electrostatic terms (the Debye–Huckel and the Pitzer–Debye–Huckel equations) has been generalized to correlate the phase behavior of the quaternary system. Good agreement has been found between experimental and calculated data from both models especially from the Pitzer–Debye–Huckel equation.Also an effort was done to compare the effect of temperature as well as addition of PVCL on the binodal curves of PEG, KH2PO4, and water. The effect of the type of salt on the binodals has been also studied, and the salting out power of the salts has been determined.