Abstract
The effect of solvent structure on the slope in the plot of ln K vs. solute carbon number was examined. It was found that the free energy of methylene group transfer from the gas phase into a solvent was always negative and that the absolute magnitude of interaction free energy between the methylene group and the solvent was always larger than the absolute magnitude of cavity formation free energy of the methylene group in the solvent. Thus, the slope in the plot of ln K vs. solute carbon number was always positive and its value decreases with increase of solvent polarity since the cavity formation energy of the CH₂ unit increases with increase of solvent polarity while the dispersive interaction energy of the CH₂ unit is virtually invariant. We also examined the effect of sequential addition of CH₂ unit to a solvent molecule upon ln K for three homologous series of solvents: n-alkanes, n-alcohols, and n-nitriles. Characteristic trends in the plots of ln K vs. solvent carbon number were observed for individual solvent groups. A decrease of ln K with solvent carbon number was observed for n-alkanes. An abrupt increase in ln K followed by levelling off was observed for n-alcohols while a final slight decrease in ln K after an abrupt increase followed by rapid levelling off was noted for n-nitriles. All of theses phenomena were found related to variation in cavity formation energy. It was clearly shown that a structural change of a polar solvent by sequential addition of CH₂ units causes an abrupt polarity decrease initially, then gradual levelling off, and finally, conversion to a virtually nonpolar solvent if enough CH₂ units are added.