Dissociation behaviour of (tetra-n-butylammonium bromide + tetra-n-butylammonium chloride) mixed semiclathrate hydrate systems

Highlights: • Thermal properties of (TBAB + TBAC) mixed hydrates were studied. • Dissociation temperatures and enthalpies exceeded those of pure hydrates. • Crystal systems of the mixed hydrates were comparable to those of pure hydrates. • Mixed hydrates showed small crystal distortion and hence large hydration numbers. • (TBAB + TBAC) mixed hydrates may be useful in thermal storage and gas transport. - Abstract: The thermal properties of {tetra-n-butylammonium bromide + tetra-n-butylammonium chloride (TBAB + TBAC)} mixed semiclathrate hydrates prepared from aqueous solutions were investigated by dissociation temperature measurements and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The maximum dissociation temperature of the mixed hydrate crystals at 0.1 MPa is 288.5 K for x_TBAB = 0.2 {mole fraction of TBAB to (TBAB + TBAC)}, which is higher than that of the pure hydrates {T = (285.5 and 288.2) K for TBAB and TBAC hydrates, respectively}. In addition, the dissociation enthalpies of the mixed hydrates are higher than those of the pure hydrates {(5.55 ± 0.06) kJ ⋅ mol⁻¹ H₂O for pure TBAB hydrate and (5.30 ± 0.05) kJ ⋅ mol⁻¹ H₂O for pure TBAC hydrate}, with a maximum of (5.95 ± 0.12) kJ ⋅ mol⁻¹ H₂O recorded at approximately x_TBAB = 0.4. It was therefore suggested that the crystal distortion in (TBAB + TBAC) mixed hydrates, caused by replacing water molecules by both bromide and chloride anions, was smaller than that observed for each pure hydrate. Consequently, the hydration numbers in the mixed hydrates were hypothesized to be slightly higher than those of the pure hydrates