The solubilities of 2-isopropylthioxanthone (ITX) in methanol, toluene, ethanol, acetone, ethyl acetate, 1,4-dioxane, and 1,2-dichloroethane were determined at temperatures ranging from (299.15 to 329.85) K under atmospheric pressure by employing the synthetic method. The solid−liquid equilibrium of the mixture was detected by a laser monitoring observation technique and found to increase with an increase in temperature. The experimental solubilities were correlated by the modified Apelblat and λh equations. The modified Apelblat equation fits well with the experimental data with the relative deviation less than 2.86 %. The standard enthalpy and standard entropy of the solution of ITX in different solvents were obtained by van't Hoff equation together with the modified Apelblat model.
■ INTRODUCTIONIn the extensive applications of photopolymerization science and technology, photoinitiator systems, which can produce free radicals to trigger polymerization, play a very important role. 1−4 As a commercially sulfur-type photoinitiators, 2-isopropylthioxanthone (ITX) (molecular formula C 16 H 14 OS; molecular weight 254.35; CAS registry no. 5495-84-1), with its chemical structure shown in Figure 1, has been widely used in many processes such as printing inks, surface coatings, microelectronics, and photoresists. 5 ITX was also widely used in UV curing to promote the polymerization of inks used in paper-or plastic-based packaging materials because of its high photoinitiation efficiency and absorption characteristics at near-UV range (370−385 nm). 6−15 The obvious advantages of ITX are mutual solubility with organic solvent and low cost. However, these are not entirely satisfactory because, compared with high-molecular weight analogues, ITX has disadvantages such as odor, toxicity, and a tendency to migrate from printing ink into the cured materials. 16 Especially, in the case of UV inks for food packaging materials, the interest in its possible biological activities and potential hazard for human health became topical since baby milk was detected to be contaminated with ITX. 17 Considering the importance of economic and ecological advantages, the studies of ITX have been increased rapidly both in experiments and theories.As is well-known, ITX is highly lipophilic but virtually insoluble in water, so extraction, purification, and detection of ITX has always been carried out by traditional organic solvent, such as methanol, toluene, acetonitrile ethanol, and so on, in synthesis and analysis process of ITX. 18−24 Moreover, with regard to its role as triplet sensitizer in photolysis, 25,26 experiments revealed that the spectroscopic properties of ITX are strongly dependent on the nature of the solvent. 27−32 Hence, for improving and developing the 2-isopropylthioxanthone's determination, selective, efficient and rapid separation, and subsequent industrial application, it is very important to know the solubility of ITX in varied kinds of solvents at different temperatures. To the best of our knowledge, however, only the sol...