Diffusion data in
multicomponent liquids are scarce, because these
diffusion measurements are time-consuming and laborious. Most diffusion
data are therefore available for binary mixtures. While there are
at least some data on ternary diffusion, the data on quaternary diffusion
are very limited. Therefore, experimental data on multicomponent diffusion
are the bottleneck for modeling and understanding mass transport in
chemical, biological, and physiological multicomponent systems. In
this work, we present the
first measurement of quaternary diffusion coefficients using Raman
microspectroscopy in a H-cell microchannel. This measurement method
provides access to quaternary diffusion coefficients even from a single
experiment. Three experiments are sufficient for good precision and
low uncertainty. The presented measurement method reduces the experiment
time, the sample volume, and the number of experiments. Diffusion
coefficients are reported for the quaternary system cyclohexane +
toluene + acetone + methanol and its ternary subsystem cyclohexane
+ toluene + methanol at 298.15 K. For both systems, significant cross-diffusion
coefficients were observed even at low concentrations. Despite the
molecular interactions, adding acetone as further component to the
system reduced the cross-diffusion coefficients by almost 1 order
of magnitude showing the complex behavior of multicomponent diffusion.