On the partitioning of benzene between water and n-alkanes

The magnitude of the work of cavity creation increases with the n-alkane chain-length due to the volume packing density increase, in line with expectations based on correlations with surface tension, cohesive energy density, and the inverse of isothermal compressibility. Also the magnitude of the Gibbs energy gain to turn on benzene–alkane attractive interactions increases with the n-alkane chain-length, but to a lesser extent than the work of cavity creation, thus benzene solubility, under Ben-Naim standard conditions, slightly decreases on lengthening the alkyl chain, in line with experimental data. It is unjustified to apply a Flory–Huggins correction to the Ben-Naim standard Gibbs energy of transfer.