Application of MIVM for Cu-Ni Alloy in Vacuum Distillation

Abstract

The activities of components in Cu-Ni alloy were predicted based on the molecular interaction volume model (MIVM). The required binary parameters B _ij and B _ji were determined by using the Newton—Raphson methodology with the aid of the experimental data of infinite dilution activity coefficients γ_i^∞, γ_j^∞. The predicted values of the activities match well with the experimental data, which show that the predicting effect of this method is reliable due to the MIVM has a good and clear physical basis. The separation coefficients of Cu-Ni alloy were far larger than 1. The vapor-liquid phase equilibrium of Cu-Ni alloy was also predicted by using the activity coefficients, which indicates that Cu and Ni can be concentrated in vapor phase and liquid phase respectively by vacuum distillation. This study extends previous investigations and provides an effective and convenient model on which to base separation simulations for Cu-Ni alloy by vacuum distillation.