Thermodynamic description of aqueous solutions of silver nitrate: Experimental and modeling

Abstract

The water activity of silver nitrate solutions was measured at 298.2 K and 313.2 K using a humidity sensor instrument. Concentrations of silver nitrate up to almost saturation were included. The thermodynamic properties of the system were described by the Pitzer model, the specific interaction theory (SIT), and the Extended UNIQUAC model. The interaction parameters for the models were estimated using experimental freezing points, osmotic coefficients, and solubility for silver nitrate aqueous solutions collected from the open literature, as well as the water activity data measured in this work. Pitzer and SIT parameters were applied by introducing a temperature dependency, enabling these models to cover a more comprehensive temperature range and extrapolate the calculation to higher molalities. Both approaches represent the data satisfactorily up to moderate molalities. The Extended UNIQUAC model, with its built-in temperature dependence, provides the best thermodynamic description of this binary system. It has a very satisfactory solubility diagram and a good description of the osmotic and activity coefficients.