Question

What is the importance of studying the activity coefficients? Specifically of tributyl phosphate dissolved in kerosene

Answer 1

When we study thermodynamics, everything we study about mixture is generally wrong. It is because, we coonsider solution or mixture to be ideal. Whereas, there is nothing ideal inpractical life. So, to consider the real part, we study the deviations. The deviation from ideal behaviour help us to reach the real behaviour. Actifivity cofficient is one of the thing which help us to effectively study real behaviour of mixtures or solutions (either liquids or gas).

Now, consider that we have a spent uranium nuclear fuel rods dipped in nitric acid. But we have to extract uranium, plutonium, and thorium from this. So, we choose tributyl phosphate dissolved in kerosene which is good solution for liquid-liquid extraction. So, if we dont consider the real behaviour of this solution then how can we extract the materials dipped in nitric acid. And also remember these are radioactive materials. Anything went wrong in any direction, will be highly dangerous.

So, importance of real behaviour is important and Activity cofficient is one of them.