Classification of organic solvents based on correlation between dielectric β parameter and empirical solvent polarity parameter ET^N

Authors:

• Maria Dutkiewicz

Abstract

It is proposed that the ratio μ²/V, from electrostatic solvation theory, be used to designate solvent polarity; μ is the dipole moment and V the molar volume. The 101 solvents analysed can be divided into four classes (and two subclasses) by means of the correlation between the dielectric β parameter (proportional to μ²/V) and the empirical solvent polarity parameter ENT. Although the method proposed is very simple, the results agree very well with those obtained by a much more complex multivariate statistical method (M. Chastrette, M. Rajzmann, M. Chanon and K. F. Purcell, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1985, 107, 1). Moreover some solvents, that are apparently non-conformist under the Chastrette criteria, can be classified in line with their molecular properties under the method described here.