Interactions of polar and nonpolar volatile organic compounds with methyl ester solvents

The interactions of polar and nonpolar volatile organic compounds (VOC) with methyl ester solvents were studied. In order to establish trends two polar and two nonpolar solutes were selected for the study. Solubility computations were performed using the Modified UNIFAC Dortmund group contribution model using a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. It was found that the solubility of nonpolar solutes in methyl esters increases with an increase in ester chain length, but decreases with an increase in the solute chain length. Furthermore the solubility of nonpolar solutes decreases with an increase in the degree of ester solvent unsaturation. In contrast the solubility of polar solutes in methyl esters decreases with an increase in solvent chain length and increases with increasing solute chain length. Solubility of polar solutes also improved with an increase in the degree of solvent unsaturation. An increase in branching on polar solutes results in an increasing trend towards nonpolar behavior due to the shielding effect of the branches on interactions with the polar site of the solute