A quartz crystal microbalance technique to study wax crystallization in the presence of gas

M. Cassiede (1) , Jérôme Pauly (1) , Michel Milhet (1) , Marc Rivaletto (2) , Isabel M. Marrucho (3) , J. A.P. Coutinho (3) , Jean-Luc Daridon (1)

1 TEFC - Thermodynamique et Energétique des fluides complexes
2 LGE - Laboratoire de Génie Electrique
3 CICECO - Centro de Investigacao em Materiais Ceramicaos e Compositos

A quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) was designed to measure the melting temperature in the presence of gas under high pressure. The capacity of the experimental technique to determine the liquid–solid as well as the solid–solid transitions was first tested by measuring the phase transition temperatures of several pure n-alkanes from n-C19 to n-C30 under atmospheric pressure and by comparing the results with literature data. Then, the wax disappearance conditions were determined for linear alkanes from n-C20 to n-C22 in the presence of carbon dioxide under pressure. The resulting solid–liquid–vapour three-phase equilibrium curves correctly match those obtained in earlier studies.

Mots clés: quartz crystal microbalance; phase transitions; solid–liquid–vapour equilibria; n-alkanes; carbon dioxide

Domaines: Chimie-Physique [physics.chem-ph]

M. Cassiede, Jérôme Pauly, Michel Milhet, Marc Rivaletto, Isabel M. Marrucho, et al.. A quartz crystal microbalance technique to study wax crystallization in the presence of gas. Measurement Science and Technology, 2008, 19 (6), pp.art. no. 065704. ⟨10.1088/0957-0233/19/6/065704⟩. ⟨hal-00339107⟩