Thermodynamic Analysis and Molecular Dynamic Simulation of the Solubility of 2,2-Bis(hydroxymethyl)propionic Acid in 12 Monosolvents

The solubility of 2,2-Bis(hydroxymethyl)propionic acid (DMPA) in 12 mono solvents (methanol, ethanol, 1-propanol, 2-propanol, 1-butanol, 2-butanol, methyl ethanoate, ethyl acetate, butyl acetate, N, N- dimethylformamide, water, and acetone) was determined by the gravimetric method at temperatures ranging from 288.15 to 328.15 K under atmospheric pressure (0.1 MPa). Solubility data were correlated by the Apelblat model, kh equation, and van't Hoff model, and the Apelblat equation achieved the best fitting performance. Furthermore, the mixing thermodynamic functions were derived by NRTL model, which showed that the dissolution was a spontaneous and entropy-driven mixing process in solvents. Besides, the contributions of multiple physicochemical properties of solvents to the solubility of DMPA were evaluated. The results indicated that polarity and summation of the hydrogen bond acceptor propensities played crucial roles in determining DMPA solubility among all solvents. Molecular dynamic simulations were further employed to investigate solvent effect on the solubility of DMPA. Radial distri-bution function (RDF) analyses showed that the rank of solute-solvent interactions can be well correlated with solubility order of DMPA in the solvents. Moreover, the rank of solvation free energy of DMPA in different solutions is consistent with the order of solubility very well. (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd.